A New Obsession: Taking Pictures of Feeding Fish to Improve Timing and Reactions

This post may contain depictions of eldritch monstrosities from The Depths.

A neighbour of mine has a pond. A nice pond, with nice fish in. Nice, big fish. Nice, big fish that would surely be good photography subjects. Like shooting fish in a barrel, as it were.

I am fortunate, then, that I am given the - in my opinion enviable - duty of providing them food when my neighbours are away.

Pre-feed Prep

At first I was just wanting to take pictures of cool fish (technically fishes, really), but that somehow - perhaps inevitably - transformed into trying to take as many pictures of "fish eating fish pellets and dried mealworms" as I could.

Enter: Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary (on a Nikon D610).

It's a trick of the (refracted) light

I figured with the reach the Sigma gives, I'd be able to get some fun, close-up pictures of fish, but since they were quite skittish ... Also use it as an opportunity to practice trying to take the pictures at the just right moment - something I've never been particularly great at doing.

Once I found a mostly-reasonable combination of ISO and shutter speed I'd try to gauge when and where each fish was likely to surface, and try to capture the exact moment they fed. That each fish has its own distinct personality makes for some fun on-the-fly decisions; do I stay where I am and hope for one fish to surface here, or do I aim for the pellets I can see that other fish eyeing up? Is this one merely acting coy?

Theft is a common occurence, even in the fish world

With aperture hovering around or below f/6 for much of it, I'd try to get as fast a shutter speed as possible without pushing ISO too high. Unfortunately, with the pond being in shade for the morning feedings - and that being the nicest available light overall - this meant ISO was quite a bit higher than I'd like. Denoising's fine 'n all, but if you're able to shoot at a lower ISO, that's usually preferable.

My self-imposed limitations, in order of importance:

• single-shot; no bursts
• moment-of-ingestion as target
• minimal editing*

You may be reading through this, looking at these pictures and thinking, "well that's all well and good but these aren't very good photos". You'd be right! Artistically, these all leave a lot to be desired.

Post-pellet pout

But! They serve their intended purpose well enough: "Good Photograph" was never a primary goal of this exercise. I've spent an enjoyable amount of time trying to get better; even in the 3 or so sessions I've had so far I think I see some progress.

Now, is this the sole reason I agree to feed my neighbours' fish? No! It's peaceful, and I like helping out if I can. Sometimes my cat will accompany me and perch next to the pond, but she doesn't really seem interested in what's going on under the surface of the water. I think she - like I - might just like the company.

Fin.

FEED

*I don't own and can't really justify a 95mm polariser, so opted for reasonably heavy-handed abuse of the Dehaze slider