Now these jellies turned out to be a little bit easier to photograph, primarily because they moved much slower than the others. Their tentacles look remarkably delicate. They remind me of microscopic hydra, almost. The transparency and the blurry ones in the background just add to the sensation that I’ve captured this through a microscope. In reality, they’re a little smaller than the palm of my hand.
These aquarium jellyfish are surprisingly difficult to photograph. The lighting conditions are very poor, and they move just quickly enough that a slow shutter speed fails to freeze the action. Even with a tripod, there’s motion blur in places. Out of a dozen shots, this is the one I was most happy with, although I got a couple of okay shots of another jelly species as well I will probably share with you tomorrow!
Well, the slideshow I embedded last night stinks, so here’s one of the photos I was trying to show off as a group. I have a whole set of these up on Flickr right now. HDR is great with grungy, industrial stuff. Unfortunately, I had to make these with single RAW files probably more due to my ignorance than anything else. But I mostly adjusted for noise and such and they look alright to me. I really liked this boat in particular, but click through to Flickr and you’ll see more.
Here’s a set of single-shot HDR images from the fishing boats docked in Newport. The multi-exposures weren’t turning out right, but these look not bad. I really like the HDR effect, but I am going to try not to over-use it.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Harbor Seals are just hilarious looking to me. This is an aquarium shot, because there was no way for me to get close enough for a pic like this without a boat in the wild. The next time we come out here, I hope to have the financial security to be able to take a whale/seal watching boat out. I bet I could get some really great photos. Still, even though this is kinda “cheating” I think it turned out great.
Which do you prefer?
Or this one?
No wait. Puffins are cool, but I am pretty sure in the Handbook of 12 Year Old Biology Enthusiasts clearly states that the sea otter trumps every other animal.
But then, puffins are pretty damned awesome too. I’m going to have to go with puffins on this one. For now.
Sea urchins are awesome. That’s all I have to say.
Not the best from yesterday, but I am having trouble connecting to the hotel wireless long enough to upload everything. And I’m still making some HDRs of the bay. But I really like how this one turned out. I was taking a picture of something else and heard a squawking behind me. I loved over my shoulder and this guy was giving me the evil eye.
Newport has been great. I’m sad to be leaving it for Portland today. Our feet cannot take much more in the way of walking. I am looking forward to a week of sitting in my office looking for jobs and working on freelance projects.
My story “Groob’s Stupid Grubs,” a story of a goblin’s hopes for his idiot children, is available in Black Gate 15.
I recently finished the first draft of a YA novel called Takedown Notice set in the net-mage universe of my stories “Captain Blood’s B00ty” and “One Click Banishment.” What happens when the Magical Association of Atlantis finally gets the upper hand against the net mages in the spell program copyfight?