The Deep (Hull)

[Mr Jones]

My girlfriend and I decided not to stay in like the 2 pasty pale couple of gaming geeks and actually ventured out to visit the local attractions. I've always wanted to visit The Deep, the local Aquarium, apparently it's the worlds only submarina - whatever that is.

Anyway, here's a bunch of shots - critics and comments welcome!
(Note: Judges, please do not comment, in case I do decide to use the first image for this month's competition)

1) The Deep (The typical outside view shot, been done to death by the locals and tourist)

2) Random Shot of The Day

3) Yellow Fish

4) Big Starfish

5) The Tank

6) Girlfriend Silhouette

7) Self Silhouette

8) Twilight Jelly Fish I

9) Twilight Jelly Fish II

10) Garden Eel (Simply adorable)

Hope you guys enjoy these as much as I did enjoy my day out.
Here's a final shot from the 'nose' of The Deep, over looking the Humber and Hull's Marina/Humber Bridge and the outer regions:

11) HDR-ish. Still learning how to blend them properly.

 

[Mr Jones]

No.7- Do they know you're having a pee against the glass?


I like no. 1 but I think it could do with a bit of a crop, the point is a bit to central for my taste, it may (and i'm really not sure here) look quite good as a square crop. No. 10 is really sweet.

Here's a square crop of a portrait shot I did, I find this is better squared?

Number 4, epic

I know! I was surprised how much details I can see, especially when most of the place is so dark, I find I need to constantly eat carrots just to walk through the blooming place!

Overall, very good job considering it is an aquarium (reflections on glass, poor lighting, no flash, some fast moving fish, no tripod, rock-pools have ripples, etc.)

...

Thanks everyone for the comments and D.P for your pic by pic comments too I can see how number 7 look like I'm taking a wizz, damn you all! You've just made my display picture on facebook a joke!

I did try and take the silhouette at difference position, these are the only 2 I find acceptable. I've got a 1 year free pass anyway, so I might pop back there again some time this Easter holiday or after - just to get it right. Will aim to get a number 5 shot but with a silhouette too

Finally, here's another Garden Eel shot, with more 'space'

Better or just squared and centred?

 

[Mr Jones]

If you could get the haloing under control on No.11 it would be far improved and a really nice shot.

Cheers, I'll give it a try - the halo develops when I merge my 3 shots (+/-1) for HDR in Photoshop before editing it in Photomatix.

EDIT:

Here's a re-processed shot and I think it's MUCH better, agreed?

Shame with this more conservative approach, I can't bring out as much of the sky without looking too much / unbalancing the overall image.

 

[Mr Jones]

I've done it again, but this time I brought out the clouds selectively in PS, before working on the foreground with more contrast to give that little bit more oomph.

Not quite as dull as the previous rework.

 

[Mr Jones]

No 1 is the best of the bunch. I like it. How did you achieve that effect?

It was awhile ago when someone linked from OcUK to another photography forum about the use of Welding glass. You can get them for around a quid plus a fiver for a kenkoo ring. I glued my ring directly to the welding glass and use it like an ND filter (in my case, it was around 13 stops)

Rest it on a solid support or tripod, and do a long exposure.
This is a cheap man's way to doing it, you can achieve better effects (with less glass refraction) with a very high quality ND110 filter. I had mine on ISO200, f8, 30second exposure.

 

[Mr Jones]

It cost me £8 as a student to get in but the ticket allows me to come back anytime for the year. It's £9.50 for an adult and half the price for a kid. As for the space to tank ratio, I'd say about 70:30. I can't expect the ratio to be too much as those static displays are informative (apart from the kids section near the end, Deep Base 1 or whatever that's called, it was poo IMO.)

The biggest tank house a lot of fishes, 9 species of shark, including the sawshark, sting rays e.t.c. And I was there in time for 3 divers to feed them fishes and clean the tank. Those little tanks dotted around each have different displays of little niches in the sea, with 1 section dedicated to the deep sea creatures (Twilight zone) with many jelly fishes, glow fishes, crustaceans and funky dark lighting.

Overall, I'd say it's a nice little attraction in a small city like Hull. Not expecting it to be spectacular, the last aquarium I went to was Singapore Underwater World in Sentosa. That wa over 12 years ago so my experience is limited. I did however like it and would go back there again, even if it's to re-shoot that silhouette shot.

 

[Mr Jones]

Apart from the moss, weeds e.t.c. Those 'corals' are made out of plastics
It'd take YEARS for something like that to develop, so they pulled an artistic trick over many visitor's eyes.