Recently we worked at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. They have large, clean aquariums with many species of tropical fish. Tripods, which are essential when using slow 100 ISO film, are allowed. Only fish in sharp focus will be considered for publication, so, we always check before traveling to a photo location and make sure tripods are allowed. Here is a lionfish now on sale at Cafe Press.
Derk had an interesting day at Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida. He used his Nikon D200 digital camera, no flash, and no tripod. The pictures are great! We worked there on two earlier occasions using film, flash, and tripods. So, it came as a welcome surprise that the digital camera, alone, could do the job.
Mote has the usual aquarium type tanks for tropical fish. The biggest problem photographing in that area of the facility is the ever present hobby photographer or visiting school group.
Mote also has a huge aquarium tank for manatee. It is necessary to use wide lens because the manatee are big. The best perspective for a picture is from the lower viewing area where you make an underwater shot. Reflections on the aquarium glass can be a big problem there.
Here are a couple of Derk’s pictures. The Jellyfish is available at kphotos.imagekind.com/TropicalFish as poster or framed print and the clownfish is also available there.:
On March 30 we joined ImageKind and have been uploading images ever since. The first sale came during the third week. Yesterday we received the following email from ImageKind:
“Congratulations! You have been selected as a Featured Artist of the Week at Imagekind!
We have selected an image from your gallery to be placed on the homepage of Imagekind.com, along with a short artist’s bio, which links to your Imagekind profile. This will stay in place for at least a week and sometimes, dependent on its popularity, may continue in place for another week. This cycle usually takes place on each Wednesday. You don’t need to do anything, you’re already on the homepage! However, this is a great time to update your galleries with any new work and to ensure that all your relevant details are in place.
It is our privilege to showcase your work as being outstanding amidst a field of so many other great artists and photographers. Our success is entirely about you, our creative community. Please tell your colleagues, friends and family about the #1 place on the web to discover and purchase original art.
Have a great day and we wish you continued success!
Cheers,
Travis Young”
Currently we have Animals, Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, Tropical Fish, Washington DC, San Diego, San Francisco, New Orleans picture galleries.
We spent 3 days last week working in Tampa, Florida, USA. We photographed the Tampa Convention Center, St. Petersburg Times Forum, Marriott Hotel Marina, Tampa Aquarium, and Channelside Mall. One day was devoted to learning new PhotoShop techniques in a NAPP seminar.
Fortunately we had good weather for photography; clear skies with just a few interesting clouds floating by. We had a tripod, but, only used it at night. A tripod and extension cord for strobe are usually employed in retail aquarium stores where the tanks are small. But, with large public aquarium tanks the fish have so much room to move that we do just as well hand holding camera with flash on body.
Now we are assembling a set of new tropical fish pictures for a photo buyer. The hardest part of the job is correctly naming the fish. If we cannot determine the name from reference books or the internet, we contact the Aquarium staff and ask for help.
Look below at Brian White’s comment on photographing in bright light. He is right and we neglected to share that we make our pictures in early morning or late afternoon when in an area known to have bright light. The afternoon glow on buildings from sidelight as the sun is low on horizion is very pleasing to the eye.
After taking some time off for the holidays, we are back to work. Spent a day photographing at Mote Marine Aquarium, Bradenton, Florida. They allow tripods and flash so that makes it possible to get good images.
A picture of scorpionfish and toadfish together made an image that would look good framed on a wall so we scanned it for CafePress. It will be added to a set of slides we will send to one of our regular photobuyers soon.
It can be seen with other animal pictures in Framed Art Pictures and here. 
BTW if you enjoy reading about our adventures in the world of stock photography add us to your Technorati Favorites .
We photographed a lot of fish tanks at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last week. One of our favorite tropical fish was the Red Devil Cichlid (Amphilophus labiatus) from Nicaragua. That fish tank was photographed by Derk with our digital Nikon.
The digital picture itself is fine, but each fish is only about 2 inches long. We wanted to open a new section in our Fish Lover Gifts shop for Red Cichlid Tropical Fish.
The Cafe Press design format for adult clothing uses 10 inches wide design. After enlarging the digital picture we decided to turn it into a drawing. Isn’t PhotoShop great? We have often used Poster Edges effect for clothing.
It took a lot of research, but, we finally found a film processor, located in the Chicago downtown Loop, who would develop E6 slide film in 4 hours- Gamma on W. Superior. Eight rolls were developed. Everything came out looking super, so, nothing needs to be re-photographed.
Yesterday we worked the Shedd Aquarium and surrounding area for 3 hours. It’s a cool spot from which to photograph the Chicago skyline. Millennial Park is another good place for skyline pictures.
Shedd has interesting exhibits showing different water levels occurring in nature and the fish and reptiles that live in each different water level. There are also special tanks for the areas in the world with cichlids.
Herp lovers will enjoy the large lizard exhibit. There are frilly dragons, bearded dragons, chameleons, gecko, basilisk, komodo dragons, and more.
Today we worked the stores and area of North Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River, including Water Tower Place. The newest upscale shopping mall is 900 North Michigan. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Oak Tree Restaurant there.
A favorite photogaphic study of mine is store windows and reflections. Even better is having a pedestrian looking in the window, too. Tiffany’s Michigan Avenue windows were some used today. That film won’t be developed until next week. then we’ll add a window reflection picture here.
Several hundred images are made on slide film and digital camera flash cards during every photo trip. Today we worked reviewing and organizing the images made in Atlanta, Georgia.
A side benefit is reliving the experience represented in each photograph. But, we have a magazine photobuyer waiting for the images. In this case, it means scanning the slides and burning a CD.
Below are 2 pictures made in the digital camera. The beautiful flowers are growing at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The lionfish is swimming at the Georgia Aquarium. 
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