Otter, Water

Of course, since we visited the aquarium to see the sea horses, we also had to go and see the otters, long one of their major attractions. Timing worked out well, so we were on-station when feeding time rolled around (11:30 am for the morning session.) As you can see, photographing these animals is just a difficult as it would be shooting any other fast moving creature living behind a wall of glass like, say, a sea horse, just to pick something at random! This was about as good as I could get that day.

And speaking of going places, I'm once again in Stockholm. Oddly, it seems balmier here than it was in CA when I left at the weekend. Probaly just means that global warming is more of an issue for Europe than it is in North America. Oh dear, and pass me another SUV, please.

Back Sunday.

Oh yes, the punchline. "What's the definition of a water otter?" Answer: a kettle.

Must be the jet lag talking.

Morning With The Gee Gees

Though in this case, the aquatic variety!

We had headed off to Monterey for a couple of days as a bit of a mini Spring break. As part of the deal offered by the Monterey Plaza hotel, we got free tickets to the Monterey Aquarium in addition to much-reduced room-rates.

Purely by luck, mid last week their new exhibition, The Secret Lives of Sea Horses, opened. So off we went.

Despite getting there as soon as it opened, and with advance tickets no less, the exhibit was still crowded. Being there on Easter weekend was always going to mean the place was heaving so no real surprises there I suppose, but even so each of the aquariums was more of a squeeze to get to than we anticipated. That, combined with the optical challenges - especially true of the circular tanks - meant that photographing these little beasties was a real challenge. The above, a leafy sea dragon, was an amazing creature that this shot does a bit of a disservice to, and worth the entry fee alone to see. However, mixing low lighting, crowded conditions, curved glass and creatures that are actually quite active means that you will likely end up with only a handful of shots in focus, let alone worthy of being labelled "keepers".

Notwithstanding the crowds, it's well worth the effort to catch this exhibit if you can. They've done their usual exemplary job of pulling together a fascinating review of a whole class of creatures, as anyone having seen their previous jelly fish exhibit will already know.