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ok i think i fixed the problem so here are my picks

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In the age of darkness the blind man is the best guide. In the age of insanity look towards the mad man to show you the way

ill get more picks


In the age of darkness the blind man is the best guide. In the age of insanity look towards the mad man to show you the way

Nice lookin' firefish. You need to practice focusing the camera though.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Sometimes, focusing on a fast moving fish can be a MAJOR test of endurance!

If your camera will let you dial in manual settings, try the following:

Shutter speed - 1/60 second (or faster if the camera will synchronise with the flash at faster speeds - better quality digital cameras will sync all the way to 1/1000 second, but for your first experiments, I'd stick to 1/60 or 1/125 second).

Aperture - as narrow as you can make it. Higher f-numbers (e.g., f11, f22) equals narrower apertures. Your widest setting will be f2.8, or if you're rich can can afford a Nikon digital SLR with the top-of-the-range lenses, f2. Pick the highest f-number you can, as the narrower aperture will increase your depth of field and increase your chances of the fish being in focus even if the target isn't at the critical focus point.

Flash setting - if your camera allows you to select different flash powers, go for the most powerful possible setting. If your camera has a hot shoe for bolting on an external flash unit, get a good powerful external flash and use that. This assumes that your camera has a built-in flash like many digitals nowadays. Mine has a built-in flash and an external flash hot shoe. For fish work the built in flash usually provides enough light, but if I need the flash to be angled to reduce flash bounce, I pop on the external flash and set that to 'nuclear bomb flare' output levels.

With the external flash, my digital camera will allow me to use 1/1000 second shutter speed and f11 aperture. With those settings, motion is frozen and the depth of field is decent too.

Oh, and another tip. If your camera IS a digital, and you have the option to go for manual focusing instead of autofocusing, use manual focus and follow the fish. Autofocus mechanisms can sometimes delay between pressing the trigger and firing the shutter, resulting in your subject moving before you take the pic. If you use manual focus, and follow the fish, the shutter will fire instantly the moment you press the button. Use the autofocus mechanism to set the focus distance if you need to (or it has the nice focusing buttons to let you), but switch to manual focus for actually taking the shot.

finally, it simply remains for me to say - nice Firefish! Or, as I know it here in the UK, a Fireflash Goby (Nemateleotris magnifica was originally classified as a Goby before being moved into the Family Microdesmidae).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002