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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- Rock Anemone Mouth Closeup
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- Orange Ricordea Closeup
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- Green Ricordea Macro Shot
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- Green and Purple Hammer Coral
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- Red Skirted Zoas
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- Green Mushroom Coral
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- Spotted Mushroom Closeup
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- Bright Orange Ricordea Macro Shot
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- Frogspawn Coral Closeup
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- Large Hammer Coral Colony
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- Green Florida Ricordea
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- Galaxea Coral Closeup Shot
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- Green Fuzzy Mushroom
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- Euphyllid corals are among those listed on the proposal
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- Mushroom Rock and Galaxea
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- Leather Coral Closeup
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- Marc Levenson with Top Down Box
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- Sea Hare CloseupSea
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- Marc Levenson Giving Demonstration
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- Vivid Orange Florida Ricordea
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- Leather Coral Macro Shot
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- Spotted Mushrooms Growing on Overflow Box
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- Purple Mushroom Closeup
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- Live Rock Covered in Purple Mushrooms
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- Sea Hare’s Head
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- Neon Green Lobophytum Leather Coral
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- Sea Hare Foraging for Food
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- Herbivorous Sea Hare
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- Ocellaris Clownfish
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- Yellow Assessor Hovering Over Galaxea
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- Marc Levenson Giving Demonstration
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- Left Side of Mixed Reef Aquarium
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- Leather Coral in Current
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- Rock Anemone
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- Red Skirt Zoanthids
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- Mixed Reef Aquarium
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).
