This weekend we traveled to one of my most favorite places on Earth - the Monterey Bay, and we finally visited the Aquarium. You might wonder why are there almost no images of my kids, husband, Mom or father-in-law, even though they all came in tow. Well, it's quite simple really. The baby stayed outside with my mom and John Sr. and they walked down on Cannery Row to the Fishermen's Wharf, and once inside, I practically lost sight of Johnny and John not 15 minutes in. It was crowded, noisy, hot, and dark in the Aquarium, and if it wasn't for Johnny's flashing shoes, John would have lost track of him too... Besides, there are way too many photo of my children in this blog already :)
At any rate, we had fun. The turtles, sharks, octopus, and the rest of the sea-life were amazing! I quite enjoyed the jellyfish and the schools of silver fish swimming in circles in the elaborate Aquarium tunnel tanks.
Photography-wise, this was one of the most challenging environments to shoot in. Not that I was really set up for achieving some sort of award-winning perfection, but I wanted to do justice to the lovely ocean occupants. For the most part the exhibit rooms were too dim to focus properly, and the fish were moving too fast to use slower shooting speed. Flash was not allowed - and was useless anyways because it would have thrown terrible reflections off the tank walls, but there was no room for a tripod either, as it was a tourist-packed Saturday morning. And cranking the ISO helped some, at the cost of way too much noise...
Considering that all of these are hand-held and that I used my kit lens, however, I should say I did pretty darn well. Enjoy!
P.S. You gotta love the new statue at the city wharf with Steinbeck perched on top!
