Monterey Bay Aquarium

 by Allen Kuhlow

Seahorse -

© Allen R. Kuhlow



Recently, we visited one of our favorite wildlife sites on the central California coast, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Wildlife? At an aquarium? Yes, the Monterey Bay Aquarium really is a great location to study and photograph wildlife.

The aquarium features several natural environments where you can hone your action photography skills, including a 350,000 gallon Outer Bay Habitat and a Giant Kelp Forest. We were especially interested in visiting the seahorse exhibit.

Now, you might think that photographing wildlife in an enclosed exhibit wouldn’t offer much of a challenge, but I can confirm that it’s not as easy as you think to create memorable images in an aquarium. Your challenges include waiting for that expressive pose from your chosen animal, finding a suitable background that gives a sense of place for the wildlife, and keeping your fellow photographers out of the picture. As you know, everyone has a cell phone with a camera so you’ll have plenty of company! We visited the aquarium during the week when fewer visitors were at the aquarium.

Seahorse - © Allen R. Kuhlow

The Secret Lives of Seahorses exhibit is magical. (The seahorses can be seen daily through August 2012.) Several of these animals are truly unreal. Their camouflage makes them almost invisible in nature, so the aquarium’s display provides a rare glimpse and a reasonable chance to photograph them…But it’s not easy. As the seahorses drift past and the background plants bend slowly and the other visitors create their favorite photos, you realize that you are part of a slow-motion dance. Oh, and did you set your camera to optimize the results you expect before you started creating those memorable images? It's fascinating to watch these delicate animals, and photography might be temporarily forgotten!

Another interesting note: The aquarium has made a temporary home for a juvenile Great White Shark, so now is the time to view this magnificent animal from a safe distance.

The light available for photography is limited; for some of the creatures, more light would be harmful to their health. Use a lens that gathers more light, your lens with the largest aperture. Check for signs that tell you whether you can use flash or not, and remember that flash pointed directly at the aquarium glass will bounce back into your lens, which means you’ll be deleting that image.

For some photographers the Monterey Bay Aquarium will be a welcome change of pace. Although the wildlife in confined within tanks, the opportunity to photograph sea creatures in natural-appearing habitats while improving your action photography skills is a welcome challenge…and it’s all done in an environment that is more comfortable than many places where we photograph wildlife!