My local aquarium club, the Marine Aquarium and Reef Society of Houston, invited Marc Levenson down to teach us all a little something about aquarium photography. For those of you who don’t know Marc, you have to visit his site Melev’s Reef. He’s a great photographer, a wiz with acrylic work, and is so involved an entrenched in this great hobby. Marc has been an editor of Reefkeeping Magazine, as currently runs a reef-related podcast called Reefcast.
Hammer Coral Macro Shot
During the photography discussion, Marc went step-by-step with us, explaining cameras, lenses, and various techniques to capture that special photograph. I thought I had a fairly decent grasp on aquarium photography since I’ve researched quite a bit and most of the picture I take actually turn out pretty good. But using some of his recommended tips and tricks, I was able to get even better shots from my stock lens on my Canon XSi, and a few awesome shots on a handful of borrowed lenses. I have James Wiseman of Reefpix.org to thank for letting me borrow a few of his lenses, especially the awesome macro lenses.
For a great guide on aquarium photography, you’ll have to visits Marc’s “Fotos” page over on Melev’s Reef. His webpage covers pretty much everything discussed in the meeting, perhaps with a little less detail and obviously less hands on, but it’s still a good guide for aquarium photography.
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- Mixed Reef Aquarium Full Tank Shot
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- Orange Ricordea Closeup
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- Mixed Reef Aquarium
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- Red Skirt Zoanthids
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- Marc Levenson Giving Demonstration
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- Red Skirted Zoas
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- Marc Levenson with Top Down Box
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- Bright Orange Ricordea Macro Shot
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- Sea Hare CloseupSea
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- Frogspawn Coral Closeup
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- Sea Hare’s Head
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- Spotted Mushrooms Growing on Overflow Box
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- Spotted Mushroom Closeup
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- Ocellaris Clownfish
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- Neon Green Lobophytum Leather Coral
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- Galaxea Coral Closeup Shot
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- Green Ricordea Macro Shot
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- Green Florida Ricordea
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- Rock Anemone Mouth Closeup
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- Green Mushroom Coral
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- Marc Levenson Giving Demonstration
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- Leather Coral Macro Shot
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- Rock Anemone
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- Herbivorous Sea Hare
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- Euphyllid corals are among those listed on the proposal
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- Live Rock Covered in Purple Mushrooms
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- Mushroom Rock and Galaxea
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- Large Hammer Coral Colony
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- Green Fuzzy Mushroom
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- Sea Hare Foraging for Food
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- Leather Coral in Current
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- Green and Purple Hammer Coral
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- Vivid Orange Florida Ricordea
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- Left Side of Mixed Reef Aquarium
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- Purple Mushroom Closeup
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- Leather Coral Closeup
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- Yellow Assessor Hovering Over Galaxea
After the meeting was over, Eric Borneman, Brian Plankis, and a small group of reef aquarium enthusiasts (myself included) sat around and discussed a few issues plaguing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The hot topic of course was the growing presence of lionfish that made their way into local waters and exploded in numbers. But that’s a topic for another time (sorry for the teaser).
