[Rhinox]

First I would like to say thanks to RRasco and fmueller, and the rest of the guys over in this thread. Because of the help I received over there, I think I am starting to figure out a little bit how to get some decent pictures out of my camera. Today I stood in front of my tank snapping pictures of my fish for a while, and for the first time produced a decent amount of pictures I'm not ashamed to share here.

I plan on posting a bunch of pics, but I'll post them in groups over the course of a few days probably. Tonight's set of pictures will feature the best shots I managed to take of my Iodotropheus Sprengerae, or Rusty cichlids. And IMO, its worth clocking on them and making them bigger - they look great at a larger size!

First, a group shot to get things going:

My male Rusty peeking out around a rock. As a bonus, notice my only remaining Synodontis Lucipinnis chillin' on the rock:

Here is the best side profile shot I have managed to take of my male ever. I've been having a heck of a time taking decent pictures of the rusties especially, so to grab these pics and this one especially feels like an acomplishment Too bad my big dumb lab had to butt into the picture but hey thats what photoshop is for later on You also get a sneak peak of one of my newest additions, a Labeotropheus fuelliborni Marmalade Cat, partially in the shot:

Here are a couple shots of my guy's females. Understandably I spent most of my time focusing in on the male but I did manage to grab a couple. Only 1 of the 4 happens to be holding at this time and unfortunately I was not able to get a decent shot of her tonight:

Alright, now onto my favorite shots of the night. As I was standing there taking pictures, my guy decided he was going to head over to one of his pits and start doing a little maintenance. I got some great shots of him spitting out mouthfuls of sand, which will be seen over the next 5 pics:

And thats it for tonights picture dump. Let me know what you think of the pics If anyone is interested in the technical aspects of the camera and settings, I'll be happy to share.

I think I can get the rest of the pics in here in 3 groups. You guys can vote which group you'd like to see next.

1: Labs, Aceis, and Catfish - probably the least impressive shots I managed to get, but I do have a nice profile of my dominant lab, a shot of my holding female lab, a couple attempts at getting acei pics, and a couple pics of my catfish.

2: Marmalades - Took a lot of shots of these guys and still need to figure out which ones to post, but 1 shot in particular I'm excited to show of an interesting view I managed to capture of markings on a particular fish's dorsal fin and tail.

3: Giant Demasoni - The real purpose of this whole photo shoot was to get a nice pic of my dominant male fully colored up. I didn't necesarily get THE shot tonight, but I did get lots of OK shots of the male, the second chalenging subdom male, and maybe a couple of the others.

Enjoy!

 

[rgr4475]

Looks good :thumb: I am a fan of catfish, so I will vote for #1

 

[mattawan_cichlid]

Giant Demasoni

 

[Kerricko]

I am interested in seeing the Marmalades. They look nice and I know you were excited when you got them.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Nice shots! If you're interested in any sort of critique, I find that getting on the exact same level as the fish/whatever you're shooting tends to have a nice effect. If not, nice shots!

 

[Rhinox]

Nice shots! If you're interested in any sort of critique, I find that getting on the exact same level as the fish/whatever you're shooting tends to have a nice effect. If not, nice shots!

Yes thanks of course I'm interested in critique! I did notice a lot of my pics came our distorted looking because I was aiming partially down. Its part I'm tall and I was standing at the tank taking the pics and part I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting camera flash reflection that the small downward angle helped with. For some pics I did hold the camera lower but I'm not sure which if any of those shots turned out. Next time I'll slide a chair over and take some shots at a better angle and see what happens.

Anyways, since the vote is tied and I'm ready to post the next set of pics, I'll go with the marmalades next. Just need a little bit of time to sort through the pics and upload them to photobucket. Stay tuned!

 

[Rhinox]

Alright, here come the marmalades.

Just keep in mind, these guys are still young, smaller juvies, so the pics aren't going to be as good. A couple nice ones for sure, but overall, not as good as the others I posted already.

Also, I did a little post-editing to some of these. Not sure if that is considered taboo or not . Mostly, some cropping, messing with the brightness and contrast, and a little bit of color temp adjustment.

First, a couple group shots:

The little ones kinda blend into the rocks a bit:

Hello!

Grazing on the rocks:

Just swimming by:

With this one, I may have managed to catch a male and female in the same shot. The flash shows the color difference nicely. I couldn't see the difference in the tank before taking these pics.

The next 2 shots are of what I assume is a male without the blotching gene, 1 of 2 like this. He looks more drab under the tank lighting, but with the camera flash he looks pretty cool. I got these guys for the marmalade patterns, but I may have a difficult choice when they all grow up on whether I can keep this guy too or not, if he keeps developing more color:

And my favorite shot, just happened to catch one turning away, and shows the patterning on the dorsal fin and tail very nicely. Underneath is the second standard colored male I believe:

Keep letting me know what you think, including critiquing. Next will be either the labs, aceis, and catfish, or giant demasoni pics. Feel free to keep voting for which to see next!

 

[kyboy]

Giant Demasoni :thumb:

 

[BoilerFan]

Giant Demasoni :thumb:

+1

 

[Kerricko]

Those Marmalades should look awesome when they mature.

 

[Rhinox]

Those Marmalades should look awesome when they mature.

thanks I'm pretty happy with them, they keep getting better looking every day. I was worried when they first showed up but they're settling in nicely now.

I owe you guys another picture update and hopefully that will come this evening. I'll do the giant demasoni next, but I might take a few new pics first. I realized when I started looking through the pics that I was so focused on getting a good pic of the dominant male that I avoided taking pics of the other 3, and I want to show the difference between dominant colored and subdoms/females. Although, I suspect I'm stuck with 4 males right now .

 

[justinf67]

any updates?

 

[macclellan]

Nice fish and snapshots! *but* some ways to go before they are great photographs.

What camera, lens, and flash are you using? Are you using on-camera flash? The fish are all washed out looking and some are blurry (either too slow a shutter speed, incorrect focusing, or camera not still (tripod). Filling the frame with the fish and better illumination from above (bright lights, remote flash, etc.) would improve them. Hope that helps!

 

[bearded lab]

VERY nice giant demasoni and rusties! If you don't mind me asking, how aggressive are they? I think several of your pics are nice, namely the ones of the rusty male and the marmalade without the blotching gene. I'm no photo expert (my pics look about like Rhinox's) but I certainly wouldn't say they are all washed out. I use an on-camera flash, and I've found I get the best clarity shooting in lower light conditions, such as when the fish is in a cave, because the flash illuminates the fish plenty. Once again, I am still quite an elementary photographer, but that's what has worked for me.

 

[Rhinox]

Hey guys been away from the site for a little while just getting caught up on some old threads.

justinf67
No new pics right now but the fish are all doing great.

macclellan
The camera is just a point and shoot but I'm doing my best to drag the best quality out of it that I can. I wanted to get a proper camera and start actually learning photography a few months back, but never got around to it. Always something more important to spend the money on I guess. I agree with your critique of my pics though.

bearded lab
Regarding aggressiveness: I think large tank + slightly overcrouding helps keep aggression down pretty well with mbuna. I have 1m:4f rusties in the tank and the male chases the females pretty fiercely. Its not uncommon to see them get chased up behind the filter intakes in the corners for a little bit, but the females seem to be able to take the abuse, then head back off into the rocks after the male calms down. Been about a year in the big tank now, haven't lost a rusty.

The giant demasoni are great. Males will liplock from time to time. First real damage I've seen was just this week, a white bump showed up on the lips of my favorite male. It's healing quickly. They also never spawn. Either that, or I'm stuck with 4 males. I had a 5th I gave away a few months ago that was a male - it was fighting with the nice male and I wanted to make sure the nice male didn't get killed. Immediately after, a new male colored up, and the 2 mostly stay at opposite ends of the tank, but they do fight now and then. I should head to my LFS and get some more juvies and hopefully get some females.

The marmalades are still smaller than the rest so I think that keeps their aggression in check for now. I did have a small female hold eggs and I have noticed some brief fighting, but nothing major. I started with 11. I haven't counted them in a few months. Wouldn't surprise me if a couple disappeared I haven't been the best fish daddy over the past few months.

The aceis and labs are as advertised. The 6 aceis I started with 2 years ago have grown into beautiful full grown adult specimens. I was down to 4 of my original 6 labs. 1 female died of stress a year ago, and another female died a few months ago while holding (no visible stress/hiding, just found dead and partially eaten one day). But just yesterday, I added 5 new juvie labs to the tank. These 5 were from the first clutch of fry I raised. They've probably grown a lot slower than they should have, but they're healthy, and IMO big enough to go play around in the big tank. I think an acei could take a chomp of 1 if it felt so inclined, but so far they're doing great.