Shooting Tau

[Razzo]

This image is the first of a new series “Shooting Tau.” Many of you know Tau as the alpha male in my 240-gallon tank, which is named after him: Mikula Group Tau. Tau is a wild caught / F0 Cyphotilapia gibberosa (Zaire Blue) harvested from a collection point known as Mikula.


For this series, I moved my gear to the 240-gallon tank in hopes of capturing some nice images similar to what I was able to capture on my 125-gallon tank (Mikula Group Nyatzi). So far, I am finding shooting Group Tau to be difficult. It’s a bigger tank, lighting is different and this group is camera shy (again). The past couple weeks, I have been conditioning Group Tau to the camera and the flash and often, this has required food which ruins the very shots I am hoping to capture. Like a doctor, the conditioning process requires lots of patients to be successful. :lol:


So, I thought this first image, one of Tau showing his backside, was appropriate. My plans are to add a nice image or two to this thread as I am able to capture them.

Cheers,
Russ

 

[Razzo]

Here are some details…

Settings: f/22, 1/200, ISO 100, 18.0mm

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T2i

Lens: Tamron 24mm wide angle zoom

Flash: Canon Speedlite 430EXII placed on top of tank in a home made diffuser box

Wireless flash trigger transceiver: Yongnuo YN622C E-TTL X

Once again,... thanks to Brent Smith (greenterra) for teaching me this method of flash use - I have been enjoying it.

Cheers,
Russ

 

[Razzo]

Still finding it difficult to get the "money shot" of Tau. It seems my best opportunities are of him fleeing my presence. I have been spending a lot more time in front of the tank with the camera and he is gradually feeling more comfortable with me and I am getting more quality chances. Just trying to be patient and catch him in the right spot with the right pose. This could take awhile.


Here is image #2 in the "Shooting Tau" series.


Hope you like this next one too

Cheers,
Russ

 

[Razzo]

Sorry, I deleted those first two images and will need to repost them later. I had a heater go bad and replaced it with the heated from one of my reservoir tanks and it was covered it hard water deposits. Of course, Tau was hanging out in front of that nasty looking heater. I tried removing it in Photoshop and thought I got rid of all traces of it. At least that's how it appeared on my fancy iMac "high quality" monitor. When looking at those images on my iPad, I could see a funny line where the heater had been. I think all traces were hard to remove because that heater created a darker shadow behind it from the flash and was much lighter in front. The "content aware fill" tool didn't take care of it as I had hoped.


In any event, pardon my reboot of this thread.


Here's to starting over


LOL, I need to see how this next image looks on my iPad :lol: