Aquatic Adventures

The Shedd Aquarium is one of those places that I like to visit approximately once every eighteen months. Any more frequent and the cacophony of the touristy, toddler-laden crowd puts an irksome damper on the experience; any less and I start to wonder about the new exhibits or if a baby beluga whale has been born.

This time I went with the boy and some friends from work. We all bought Groupons that included full access to the aquarium and all its exhibits, a live aquatic show, and a "4-D" movie. The latter was a roughly 15-minute 3-D film with some physical elements like water being sprayed and the chair rumbling at opportune times. Then there came a scene where something would pop out on screen and our chairs would poke us in the back! A thoroughly unsettling experience indeed.

On this trip I also brought my trusty T3i along in hopes of getting some fun shots. I realized rather quickly that taking pictures in an aquarium can be fairly tricky. Lighting is often pretty low, glass can be smudged with fingerprints and your subjects are usually wriggling to and fro. An excellent opportunity to practice shutter speeds and exposure. Luckily among the many blurry and underexposed duds I took, I managed to find a few decent or otherwise fun shots to share.

Beluga whales: nature's Apple product

These elusive guys were digging a hole by scooping rocks in their mouths and depositing them elsewhere.

Blue freckled stingray

Grandpa fish

Obligatory Nemo picture

Sacs of baby sharks (wriggling inside)! This was all sorts of fascinating.

A trip to the Shedd is always a pleasant reminder of how extremely diverse our waters are. This particular visit has inspired me to return on another quiet morning and practice taking some more pictures. Look for that post to come out in oh, say about 18 months or so...