# community mix



## Riceburner

Albino Tiger Barb









Endler









Guppy









Yoyo Loach









Red Eye Tetra









and platy all about 1" long


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## KaraC1980

The only one I recognized was the male Guppy, how sad is that? What kinds are the other ones?


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## Riceburner

edited.


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## KaraC1980

Yo yo Loach? Of all the fish there I didn't recognize the Yo Yo?! Good lord ... 
Ah well, in my defense that has got to be *the* palest Yo Yo I've ever seen ...


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## Riceburner

yeah....used too much bleach on that one.....

The rest look like this...


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## KaraC1980

There! See, now those I would have ID'd as Yo Yos! Amazing what a difference in colour can make ...


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## Byronicle

ok first of all those are some pretty amazing pictures!!! second of all hoW?!?! everytime i take a pic, i think the flash does something crazy and the pic comes out all dark!

how did you do that?


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## Riceburner

skill, talent and the right equipment????  

DSLR with a good lens. Some with the flash above the tank and some on camera.


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## Letigrama

amazing pics!!


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## Riceburner

couple more....


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## Riceburner

how about another...


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## Riceburner

Yoyo


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## Byronicle

awesome pictures, especially the one with the 2 yoyo loaches look sick, like dragons flying through the sky or something. what kind of camera do you use? i have a regular canon 150 dslr? but like when i take a pic with flash it looks dumb and when i take it off it looks dark!

also don't your albino tiger barbs fin nip your guppies? i always wanted some just afraid they might demolish my guppies


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## Riceburner

haven't had any issues with the barbs and guppies.

Camera flash will almost always look crap. Mine are generally off camera or bounced. Doesn't matter what camera, it's the quality of the lens and how you light that makes the difference.


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## Riceburner

another of Big Blue...


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## Riceburner

How about another....


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## Riceburner

some more...


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## Riceburner

Yoyo


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## ohmyfish

One word: *WONDERFUL!*


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## AquariAM

How are you getting a shot like this (pleco)? It is impossibly sharp. Almost hurts my eyes. You must have a very fancy camera and very fancy lens . Your pictures are probably the best I've ever seen someone take at home of their fish. 

Very nice fish also. The pleco is absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe you got a shot like that...

How are you side lighting some shots, like the blue gourami? Are you using flash? Some sort of light?


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## dl88dl

Amazing pictures


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## Riceburner

Thanks all. Some more...






























AquariAM said:


> How are you getting a shot like this (pleco)? It is impossibly sharp. Almost hurts my eyes. You must have a very fancy camera and very fancy lens . Your pictures are probably the best I've ever seen someone take at home of their fish.
> 
> Very nice fish also. The pleco is absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe you got a shot like that...
> 
> How are you side lighting some shots, like the blue gourami? Are you using flash? Some sort of light?


Any DSLR will do the same. Not a fancy lens, but a good one....it's almost 25 yrs old.

Most shots are with a single flash bounced from above the camera a bit.


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## fish_luva

awesome rice... will have to get you to come over and take shots of my JD's.... mine always look cheap and ammaturish.....
good job


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## Riceburner

JDs are a tougher one to get right


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## igor.kanshyn

They are really nice pictures! Thank you.

Keep posting


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## fish_luva

wow rice, your little one has really grown.. looks like about the same size as my little one now if you can compare from a photo  but yours appears to have a bit more coloration. Very nice


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## fish_luva

dl88dl said:


> Amazing pictures


I agree dl88,,, guess we should hire this guy to take some of our prize kiddies..


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## okoolo

I think you should stop posting all those pics .. you're gonna drive us into depression 
it's bad enough I'm green with envy..:


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## AquariAM

Riceburner if you ever have a couple of hours and you're bored-- maybe you could make a super detailed explanation of how you take good pictures. I've never seen better ones that's for sure. 

How to buy equipment, lighting, angles, lenses, F-stops and ISOs and all that other gibberish?


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## Riceburner

Yer askin' me to condense over a 1/4 century.

Besides, every time I shoot it's a bit different. I go with the flow....get it flow...  

Basically any half decent DSLR is fine. One with high ISO doesn't hurt, but not essential if you are lighting. Most of my shots are at 100. What's important is a good lens. I use a manual focus Tamron 90mm, Nikon 50mm, etc. The important thing about lighting is that you are shooting thru glass, so you want to avoid reflection of your light source and yourself....so shooting at as slight an angle as possible is best. Depending on the fish and it's coloration, I light from above with one or more flashes or I use one flash on the hotshoe bounced. Sometimes both. And occasionally direct flash as well. Depending on how shallow a focus you want will determine the aperture you use and how much light you pump out of the flashes.


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## AquariAM

Riceburner said:


> Yer askin' me to condense over a 1/4 century.
> 
> Besides, every time I shoot it's a bit different. I go with the flow....get it flow...
> 
> Basically any half decent DSLR is fine. One with high ISO doesn't hurt, but not essential if you are lighting. Most of my shots are at 100. What's important is a good lens. I use a manual focus Tamron 90mm, Nikon 50mm, etc. The important thing about lighting is that you are shooting thru glass, so you want to avoid reflection of your light source and yourself....so shooting at as slight an angle as possible is best. Depending on the fish and it's coloration, I light from above with one or more flashes or I use one flash on the hotshoe bounced. Sometimes both. And occasionally direct flash as well. Depending on how shallow a focus you want will determine the aperture you use and how much light you pump out of the flashes.


In other words, >$ x >skill = >photography
I know DSLR's are expensive, even the poorer models, and good lenses are expensive, and good lenses on hotshoes are expensive...
That's too bad I was hoping maybe you were using a cheaper camera for some shots and I could put something similar together with the right skillset hehe


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## Riceburner

Guess it depends on what you consider expensive. A used DSLR body can be had for under $500...a great DSLR for over $3k. Lenses are really where it makes it or breaks it....a kit lens is pretty cheap, but won't give you the sharpness of a half decent one. Also won't give you the capability of a macro. The current version of my Tamron sells for $550. Then you have to add flashes...one is never enough, just like tanks. You need at least one good one and maybe can get away with some small ones. Then connectors or slave units, stands, etc. This is stuff I've built up an inventory of over the years. And then yes, there is experience and skill involved. With the digital revolution, everyone can pick up a camera and go crazy and not cost as much as when it was film. But there is something to be said for training, skill, intuition, etc. for getting "the shot" with the fewest clicks of the shutter.


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## AquariAM

Riceburner said:


> Guess it depends on what you consider expensive. A used DSLR body can be had for under $500...




Come on.

Considering you can get a digital camera that works and takes passable pictures for $80, $500 with no lens no flash is not NOT expensive 

I used to get okish shots with my low end digital camera. They were about 1/100th as good as yours but I thought you were going to say like $200 man... I don't have $800 for a camera and a lens... and a flash. To be followed by another lens.. and a macro lens...

Any chance you could email me your full 8,382,837x99,238,221 pixel originals?


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## Mr Fishies

AquariAM said:


> I don't have $800 for a camera and a lens... and a flash. To be followed by another lens.. and a macro lens...


It's a tough pill to swallow when you analyze what is needed to obtain truly outstanding photographs, in terms of dollars and time spent obtaining equipment and developing skills with said gear. A little over $2K spent on gear over 6-7 years and I've yet to develop to the point where my camera/lens is the limiting factor - I disappoint my camera more than it disappoints me!

One thing worth noting though, Riceburner can and probably will be using the same lenses he has now with new model cameras 10 years from now - or even sell/trade a 5-10 year old lens for decent $ towards new.

Very few people are using 5-10 year old, <$500 point and shoot cameras...they just don't last that long.


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## AquariAM

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n88/111olbap/?action=view&current=100_5988.jpg

That's as good as I ever got  $60 camera..


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## Riceburner

Weeeelllll....let's just see..... the lens I used for most of the pics I've posted is about 25 years old and the body is about 5 years old. The lens doesn't really limit me, the body though is somewhat limiting....so the combo is somewhat limiting. I work around them though, which is where the experience and the other bits of gear come in. It helps to have proper stands, clamps, slave units, extra flashes, etc. handy.


**edit**
that's not bad for a $60 camera. What it won't give you is the macro/closeup capability. I think I've tried my kit lens before and just wasn't satisfied with it. Might try it again and see.


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## Riceburner

These are the better ones from the kit lens. Not quite as sharp and a lot worse ratio of bad shots vs good shots. Teh auto focus is a pain, that's why I prefer manual focus.
Not too bad, but it's limited to using it only on large enough fish...forget trying to get fry closeups.




































this one is an extreme crop...








compared to the sharpness of the better lens...


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## dl88dl

Beautiful pictures


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## AquariAM

http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt317/riceburner63/Fish/P4092383ax.jpg

Probably the best JD picture I've seen to date.


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## Riceburner

Nnnnnooooooo......

This is...


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