Jefz Lim Photography Blog: Marine Life

River Safari (Part 2): Rivers of the World

at 7:34 pm
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Apart from the pandas as shared in yesterday's post, there are other areas of attractions which cover the key rivers of the world such as Mississippi River, Congo River, River Nile, Ganges River, Mekong River, Yangtze River and the Wild Amazon.

A tour around the River Safari would take around 2-3 hours, considering the need to spend 10mins at every attraction point to take photographs. You will get to see many information and insights into the types of wildlife and marine life that lives along the river.

Wild Amazon

As a photographer, the Wild Amazon attracted me most (besides the Giant Panda Forest). Although the Amazon River Quest boat ride will only be available until later this year, there are still several interesting stuff for photography …

Live Feeding of Fishes

It was exciting to see big fishes (cannot remember the name of the fish) jumping off the ponds for the bait/food in the air i.e. how the fish body twist in the air, the bite on the bait/food and the splashes it create. A shutter speed of at least 1/500s is required to freeze them in the air if you want a sharp picture. Using a wider aperture and higher ISO without a flash would help to achieve the required shutter speed.

Squirrel Monkeys

They are held inside an open-air enclosure which you can enter. Although there is a stench inside the enclosure, it is worth entering as these squirrel monkeys are totally not shy to human and they can get really close like less than 1m. They hardly kept till which means that you will need to turn on continuous focusing mode (AI Servo) in order to track and photograph them. The nature light should be bright enough for the right shutter speed going on an Aperture Priority (AP) mode.

Amazon Flood Forest

There is a big fish tank which shows how the amazon forest is flooded at certain part of the year. The big fish tank is somewhat similar to that seen in S.E.A. Aquarium but of a smaller scale.

Although there are nice sea cows in the big fish tank, the thick fish tank glass and poor lighting condition inside here is really unfavorable for photography. Besides from the need to bump up the ISO as high as I can get and need to switch to manual focusing, there is also a risk of chromatic aberration occurring in the picture taken (e.g. purple fringes around the sea cow picture below).

The Other Rivers

Frankly speaking, the attractions did not fulfill my photography appetite because most of the wild life and marine life are kept in tanks which has poor lightning condition. In addition, the reflection of the glasses caused by the sunlight behind me, makes focusing and picture composition difficult.

With reflection falling on the fish tanks, auto focusing would be difficult. Switching to manual focusing would help. All other tips relating to photographing fishes in tanks in my earlier post can be observed and applied here as well.

Other Subjects for Photography

Shadows from Landscape

Walking along the River Safari, I find that there are interesting shadows from the buildings and bridges on the Upper Seletar Reservoir which makes good photography subjects.

Flowers and Plants

There are also some interesting flowers and plants along the way that can be photographed.

Please visit http://jefzlim.smugmug.com/Destinations/Singapore/River-Safari for more photos ...

Experience Marine Life in a Big Fish Tank

at 2:08 pm
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I’ve never been an avid fans for fishes or corals my whole life until my visit to S.E.A. Aquarium, world’s largest oceanarium at Resort World Sentosa (RWS) Singapore.

It was an awesome and remarkable experience when I stepped into the aquarium. I felt alive in a big fish tank with tons of colorful and animated marine life around me. What is even more awesome was a good close-up of many species of marine life that one would not get to see easily.

While one would want to capture the visual experience, there are many challenges (which I will discuss below) that exist between your photography equipment and subjects.

No Flashes Allowed

It was understandable that flashes are not allowed in order to protect blinding the marine life in the aquarium. Even if you want to use flash, the glass would have reflected most of the flash thus spoiling your photographs. This would also mean that you would have to compensate working in a “not so ideally illuminated” environment such as:

Use Fast Lens

Lens that give you a larger aperture (that is, smaller F-number - typically F/2.8 or smaller).

Set a Higher ISO

Although higher ISO gives a “grainier” (or noisy) picture, but it allows you to compensate for higher shutter speed. Personally, I have always preferred a sharper picture that can capture the “moment” with a higher shutter speed under harsh lighting condition, as it is easier to reduce noise in post-processing.

Shoot in RAW format

Shooting in RAW may take up more space and you may need additional graphics tool to post-process the RAW format in JPEGs. However, it does give you more leverages to adjust your photos during post-processing.

Use a tripod (where possible)

Depending on the crowds, you may or may not have the luxury of setting up your tripod. In my cases, I’ve managed without a tripod. So, practice to take photographs with a steady hand!.

They are Always Moving!!!

The marine life is not mock-up - they are real, alive and kicking! Some of them zoom from left to right in split seconds and pausing only occasionally, which makes it hard to focus. Not to mention that some of the fishes are also too small to be focused.

The following are some recommendations on how to photograph moving fishes.

Be Patience & Observe Your Subject's Movement

I've always spent a fair bit amount of time observing and understanding the movement of my subject, so that I can plan when, where and how I want to shoot my subject. Afterwhich, I would patiently wait for the right moment.

Use Fast Focusing Lens

Fast focusing lens gives you an edge to quickly focus in on your subject.

Use Al Servo Focusing Mode (for Canon users)

Al Servo Focusing Mode works well in tracking moving subject as your camera will constantly adjust the focusing for moving subjects. (Note: For non-Canon users, your DSLR should have equivalent features - check your camera's manual.)

Use Zoom Lens on a cropped DSLR body

This will give you an "additional reach" to zoom in on small subjects.

Switch to Manual Focusing

This works extremely well when your subject may be too small to be focused automatically by your camera.

Go for Motion Blur i.e. Long Exposure

When everything else does not work, go for motion blur. Sometimes, long exposure on the motion of the fishes can produce interesting results.

Refraction

The window glasses of the fish tanks are very thick which means that you will have refraction (i.e. distortion and sharpness issue) when photographing your subject. Challenges also increases when the “fish tanks” have a round surface.

Recommendation: To minimize potential refraction, shots are encouraged to be taken at 90-degree angle of incidence from the surface of the window glass. (See illustration below.)

Reflection

There could potential reflection on the tank’s glass due to many potential light sources around you (e.g. light from other’s handphone screen, tanks behind you, etc).

Use Polarizing Filters

This could eliminate such reflection problem. However, using polarizing filter would mean that you might lost up to 2 F-Stops depending on the quality of your filter, which the environment's lighting condition may be unfavorable to do so.

Zoom in on your Subject, Avoid of Wide-Angle Shots

Avoid taking wide-angle photo of the entire tank, as it is more likely to pick up reflections casted on the glass surface. Instead, be focus and zoom in on the subject that you want. (See illustration below.)

Ambience Lighting In the Tank

The lighting is specially set up in the tank according to the ecology for the marine life, as well as to create an ambience to the visitors. So your “as-shot” photograph may not appear with the “actual” corrected color.

Recommendation: While setting your camera’s White Balance could fix the problem, it would be easier to leave it in “AUTO” (and shoot in RAW format) and correct the White Balance during post-processing.

People Crowd

People crowd around the tanks, knocking into you who are trying to hold still to photograph. Not to mention unable to even find a squatting spot.

Recommendation: Be patience and wait for the spot that you want. Visiting on weekdays may be ideal as huge crowds are expected over weekends. It also does not hurt to be courteous to ask if they can give you some space to take a few photographs.

It Could Be Cold ...

As you might be spending hours inside the aquarium, it might get cold. Make sure that you are properly dressed up, and not end up with shaking hands when you are too cold :)