Lessons from the Master....

[Mr.Firemouth]

I spent friday at my home with the legendary Gary Parr! He ran thru a quick camera class of how to understand the F-stops vs. the shutter speeds in the manual mode, and then how light, angle of lens, and flash had different affects on the image. He also taught me how to take pic over and under exposed. This all greatly enhanced my abilities. What I forgot to set on my camera was an adjustment for the white balance, so some of the color hues are more pronounced than they really are.

Here are some samples of the shots I took with my Sony a200 and a 100mm lens.

First 2 different exposures of my red acan....

this pic is more realistic looking in color...

These Acans are from my recent purchase from Todd at Cherry Corals...

These shots had the white balance injecting too much blue light into them which makes the oranger hues look red. I will have to do some more work with these to get a better pic, but would like the polyps to get more accustomed to my tank first and grow a little more before the next series of pics on these.

Then I took a pic of a difficult coral to photograph. It is a purple Acan with orange mouths that reflects light like crazy....

Here is an older pic with a different camera of the whole piece...

Here is a shot of an Echinata Acan...

Then I took a pic of a Pagoda Cup Coral that was purchased bright yellow. The color faded to an olive green(go figure...)

continued....

 

[Mr.Firemouth]

Then I shot my Fox coral...
this is a colony shot...

This is a close up, a little darker exposure and the white balance is off again...

Here is my Medusa's Head Duncan(LOL), it is really an ORA...

Then I shot a pic of my Joker Favia...

In my tank it looks different than the frags of the mother colony that went to other peoples. They were much greener on the edges in other tanks.

Here is a cool zoa shot...

And now my best shot....

This is a frag of my friend Jim's Blasto. It is an awesome peice!!!

Most shots were done at F22-F25 at 3-5 second exposures.

Gary is man of great patience to help me out! But in the end he taught me a ton of technique with my camera. Now I just have to practice more and more. I am dying to see the coral pics Gary did of my tank!

Thanks again Gary!!!!!

 

[cparka23]

Sounds like you learned a lot from Gary. That's really cool of him to do that. Chicago and St. Louis aren't exactly a quick trip away!

Great pictures!

 

[Saltysteele]

they look great! awesome job! i need gary to come to my house next! :snicker:

i went to a seminar a month or so ago at choice aquariums, where junior and poseidon showed us all how to use our cam's. i can't say enough how much it helps to have someone show you how to use it. might as well throw the manual in the trash, because to me it just doesn't make sense. i need someone to hold my hand and walk me through. many thanks to gary, junior and poseidon for taking the time to help us novices! :haha:

 

[gparr]

Thanks for the kind words. My daughter lives in the St. Louis area and we visit with some regularity. I always try to visit Rich and/or his friend Jim home when in St. Louis. That is when the schedules assembled by my wife and daughter allow time. Always an enjoyable time. Rich has a great setup in his fish room, with plenty of room to hang out. Whenever I travel, I try to photograph hobbyist aquariums.
Gary

 

[Poseidon]

Good stuff Rich! Gary, awesome work there, he shows GREAT improvement with your help.

 

[143gadgets]

Awesome! Glad you learned from the lessons. It always helps to learn from a pro. I am going to hear one one of my favorite wedding photographers speak next month. I can't wait! i know I'm gonna learn a lot.