Hey all~

I am so excited. Tomorrow my family and I are going to the beach. I haven't been in 6 years. How do I get those wonderful beach pictures without getting sand in my  camera?

Also, we plan to make a trip to the Texas State Aquarium. I have never tried to take pictures of fish in water through glass. Any suggestions on that??

kastapp:

I am so excited. Tomorrow my family and I are going to the beach. I haven't been in 6 years. How do I get those wonderful beach pictures without getting sand in my  camera?

Don't change lenses.  Putting your camera body in a shower cap with the lens sticking out is also an option, but just don't change lenses unless you have to.

kastapp:

Also, we plan to make a trip to the Texas State Aquarium. I have never tried to take pictures of fish in water through glass. Any suggestions on that??

Use a lens hood, an off camera flash is nice, but not necassary.  Stick your lens till the hood is touching the glass.  Up your ISO if you have no flash.  A polorizer can e used, but it will lower your ss even more than it will be already.  A monopod could be useful.  They porobably don't allow tripods, but most places don't restrict monopods.

Post your stuff when you get back.  I'd love to see it.

One thing a lot of people forget about because they are caught up in the excitement is that if you DO use a flash, shoot at an angle.  If you shoot straight on, you get a big white blob in the middle of all of your pictures if you are not right up against the glass. 

Also, some aquariums have a room where the sharks, etc. are and the window display is ground to floor and the width of the room.  If so, you can stand back away from it a little ways and zoom in and the glass will disappear that way also.  I shot with the 70-200 2.8L at the Melbourne aquarium using that technique and got some great shots.  Some of them looked like I could have been in the water with the sharks.  If you want to see them you can go to my blog.   This is an archived page, so if you want to see most recent entries (not aquarium related) click on link in my signature line below. 

What a trip we had. Hurricane Dolly was hot on our heels. Seems like everyone down in Port Aransas were trying to fit in everything before the hurricane hit. The aquarium was quite busy. Here is a few of what I ended up with:

Thanks for all the help. Unfortunately, I did not get to read it until I came back...no internet where I was.