Stewart – The Blue Jaw Trigger

Stewart The Blue Jaw Trigger

This is Stewart, the new Blue Jaw Trigger.  As most Blue Jaw Triggers, he was extremely shy when we first introduced him into the quarantine tank. We gave him plenty of pipes from Home Depot to hide in. These pipes were his haven, as he rarely came out, especially in the first few days of his quarantine. Also, for the first few days he was not a great eater, and did not like to be seen while dining.  He was very quirky,as the food would be right next to the opening of the pipe, we would leave the room and then he would eat.

How did Stewart get his name? He was a great re arranger of the quarantine

Stewart the Blue Jaw

tank.  Look at the sand in the pipes. When we put the pipes in the quarantine tank, there was no sand in them. However, look at all the home decorating Stewart did. Hence, he gets his name from Martha Stewart. To call him Martha would have been a mistake, as Stewart is a male. You can tell by the blue on his jaw. The females do not have the blue on their jaw.

We quarantined Stewart, along with a Red Firefish,  a Midas Blenny, and an Orangespot Diamond Goby for four weeks. We got the shipment from Vivid Aquariums out in Canoga Park, California. Everything about the shipment was excellent, from the packing, the phone call the night before, express delivery before 10 AM and the high quality of product.

pipes in Demo tank

When we transferred the fish over to The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide Demo tank, Stewart was extremely easy. We just lifted out the pipe and put him, along with the other fish, in our acclimation bucket (an old salt bucket). After an hour, we just put him in to the Demo tank, pipe and all. No netting and minimal stress. We left the pipes in for two days to allow Stewart to get acllimated.

Stewart the Blue Jaw

However, he did not need the pipes at all. He went exploring right away and found a nice hide out in the live rock.  In the main tank he is far more active and swims around more than he did in the little 20 gallon quarantine tank.  He is one of the few reef safe triggers. If you have always wanted a trigger but had a reef tank, or did not want to spend several hunded dollars on a Bursa Trigger, this is the fish

Stewart

for you. They get along beautifully with community fish, are fascinating to look at, and have more personality than almost any fish in the tank.

How To Take A Great Picture

For people who have wrote in        and  said such nice things about  our pictures in our blog, we thank you for the compliments. I have been making my living for over twenty years taking pictures, both still and moving,  and this article will give you some of my tips on how to take a good picture.

There is one tip that is far more important than any of the others. It is a tip that is so simple you will think that it is silly, but it is my best tip I could give you. It is a tip every professional photographer must practice if they are to be good at their craft and will help the amateur improve immediately.

The golden rule: If you want a good picture, take a lot of them.

This sounds childishly simplistic, but it is the #1 rule to taking a good

Good pictures

picture. If you take 100 pictures of, lets say a fish, than you have 100 chances at getting a good shot of that fish.  If the fish stays away from your camera and in the live rock, and you only get two pictures of the fish, the odds go way down on you getting a good shot.  Why do you think when you see a movie premier and the stars walk by the photographers there is this huge flashbulb frenzy? Because all the pros exercise this one rule. Even though you think you have a good shot – keep clicking. Many times when you get back home and look at the shots on a big screen,  you see the imperfections. With a fish perhaps they are out of focus and the live rock behind them is in perfect focus. With a person it could be that their eyes are half closed, or they are not looking the right way.  The digital age has really made a tremendous difference in this whole concept.  When we shot film, it had to be processed and was expensive to make a mistake. Now, your mistakes cost you the time it takes for you to delete them, which is not long and does not cost any money.

If you are shooting your family on vacation, I have used the pocket cameras with great success. They are small, light weight, inexpensive and offer very good quality, especially for the money. However, if you want to take some nicer shots of your fish tank, a single lens reflex camera is the way to go. The single lens reflex are the bigger cameras that have interchangeable lens. When you push your finger on the shutter button, the picture takes almost instantly. Where as when you use a pocket camera, you find yourself sometimes wondering if the camera is working after you have pressed the button. Zooming and focusing are far superior on an SLR camera which are crucial for shooting fish. The brand I have found most popular with the professionals, including myself, is Canon. Nikon, too, has many loyal pros and has since caught up to Canon in image quality.  There are many Nikon fans who will disagree on my choice, but they are both excellent and reliable tools.

Next we should talk about lighting. As we mentioned in The Reef Aquarium DVD, A Set Up & Maintenance Guide, your fish tank and your lighting is one of your brushes that you use to create your masterpiece.  To shoot fish in a tank, it is important to point out that fish move. And because they move, it is helpful to have more light on them, as this allows your exposure time to decrees. You want a fast exposure while shooting a moving object as to cut down on the blur.

There is also something that is important to have, and that is a good eye.

Freddie

Some people have it

right away and others have to develop it.  While we were on vacation, my older son took one of the most beautiful pictures I had ever seen. The composition was perfect, with clouds, beach, a ship & mountains. Everything just worked to make the shot great. Any professional would have been extremely proud of the shot.  However, my oldest son was six years old. My advice to him before he took the shot? “Son, don’t touch that camera, that is not a toy”.

yellow tang

There are all sorts of rules of balance, and proportion. These rules  can help but I think you can learn more by experimenting and finding out what works for you. Going back to the golden rule – take a lot of pictures.

Finally, take time to learn the camera itself. Each one has a different

clown family

manual, and each camera does somethings different. These manuals are the most boring reads on the planet. I am a professional and I dread them. But I read them because it makes sense to know your tools that you are using.

I hope you have found these tips useful. Please keep writing me and let me know what you think!