TROUBLING TIMES
This time of year can be grueling for me.
I work for a business that’s incredibly busy seasonally, and right around April/May is when things can start to feel like I’m underwater. We operate at an unsustainable rate through the summer, then try to catch our breath afterwards. It is both a sprint and marathon.
At home, chores and projects can pile up. Some nagging plumbing issues finally came to a head. Taxes were due. I hadn’t taken or shared photos in nearly a month. I felt the pressure of deadlines; some made up in my head and others mandated by the federal government.
Not to mention the real world, where if you’re paying attention to anything, well… troubling times.
I needed reprieve.
Usually it’s just some exercise. I live on a golf course, where I’ve spent countless hours blowing off steam biking, running and even swinging a club or two. [Editor’s note: the hours are countless, but the golf balls are not: I’ve found over 700 out there] Even a quick walk through a few holes is usually enough to lower the blood pressure after a long, intense day. Sometimes I don’t even take my camera. Just enjoying the peace and quiet of perfectly landscaped and heavily-manicured nature.
This time it just wasn’t cutting it - no greenskeeper pun intended. I needed something… deeper.
The beach? Driving range? Movie theatre? I tried to think outside the box. I looked at the clock - 7:45PM… too late for the aquarium. Right? They close at 8. But that was back in January. Just check.
To my absolute delight, their website read 11PM ‘in-season’. A warm, fuzzy feeling washed over me. Followed by excitement.
Did I mention I only live two blocks away? I grabbed my camera and headed out.
Kristen getting some shots up in January. I have cooler pictures where a shark or whatever is swimming above, but I liked this one for the shoes/floor tile color match. DETAILS.
This was my third trip this year: first with Kristen on New Year’s, then again a week later because I was unsatisfied with my photos from the previous trip. At that time I was on the hunt for a magazine-worthy shot for Grand Strand Magazine. It turns out that I did indeed get that shot. Published in the April/May issue:
One of two entries selected this year.
Sure I brought my camera, but this time the mission was to relax.
Below the ray tank. Waited 4-5 minutes for one to pass over the light for a perfect silhouette.
So where’s the best spot to do that in the aquarium? It’s actually an easy answer: My now-magazine-famous sting-rays. It’s one of the only exhibits with seating: it’s got a bench built into the display, but for me it acted more as a pew. This is a sanctuary. I sat and watched them float and fly by freely, side-to-side and in and out of view. There is something so elegant about them, a weightlessness and gracefulness that I tried to capture for the magazine.
Very similar to the magazine shot. That one’s called “In Passing”. This one’s titled “In Harmony”.
I thought deep, I prayed, I meditated. I people-watched, though only briefly; people were few and far between.
Solace.
“Gotta Believe in Somethin” Part 3
After settling my eyes and brain, the next stop was the newest addition to Ripley’s: the Goldfish Realm. Now goldfish may sound underwhelming compared to say, sharks or sea turtles, but it’s actually an incredible exhibit.
This guys mostly out of focus which sucks but I love the background so much.
They have giant eyes and goofy faces and silly personalities. By far the most charismatic fish in the aquarium, and therefore the most fun to photograph.
Now this guy is in focus.
Shooting in the aquarium is practice. It requires patience. First of all, the damn things won’t stop moving. It’s all action shots in there.
There is one lobster than strikes a pose for you, but he’s one in 30 million.
Second, there is no flash allowed. This includes, for all intents and purposes, any auto-focus sensors that emit light. Mine does not, but it does make a beeping noise, which is as bothersome to other guests as the light is to the fish. So I shoot all manual everything, both camera settings and focus. This means constant adjustments. Toggling buttons and dials, quickly, or you miss the shot. To do this with moving targets, darting in and out of bright light at random, is where the patience comes in.
“We talkin about practice.”
These guys actually did sit still. Thanks fellas.
Without autofocus, to get a crisp shot of your subject you either have to twist the lens just right, or, as I’ve learned in the Goldfish Realm, you can leave the focus on the lens fixed, and just lean your body in or out slightly. It’s second nature for me to twist the lens, so remembering to do one or the other can be a discipline in it’s own right.
This one makes for an unbelievable desktop background for a work computer.
The shot above is one of my favorites. I haven’t titled it yet, feel free to submit one. Winner gets a print.
For Valentine’s Day this year Kristen gifted me a very, very fancy bracelet. It has a small, silver charm that dangles beneath the clasp. On King Street I use it as a hall-pass. At the aquarium I use it as a lure: it’s my secret weapon to get the fish to look at me. I wear it on the wrist I’m focusing the lens with, and it dances in the aquarium lights.
As a result:
Flick of the wrist.
Is that the new Skateboard P!?
Goofy as hell.
Half the bracelet is made of pearls so it’s kinda like I’m taking them home for a visit.
By accident or by fate (who’s to say) I left my phone in my car, which was absolutely for the better. There’s initially panic. Then it feels like realizing the jail cell door is unlocked. You’re free. But before long it goes back to feels like you’re missing a limb. I don’t love that. It was a great reminder to disconnect more.
After a half-lap and lots of setting-switching and button-toggling, I had no earthly idea what time was. It’s been hours, right? What time did I get here again? Just like a casino, there were no clocks in the building.
As I passed through the center foyer-ish area I motioned to my wrist and asked a younger-looking employee if they had the time. I started to cringe at myself halfway-through. Pointing at your wrist to ask for the time - unless you’re Dame telling someone to go home - is what the dinosaurs did. People have checked their phones for the time for TWENTY years now. I tried to retract the sentence to no avail. At least my bracelet was covered by my hoody, so it didn’t look like I was asking the time to show off (I’ll save that move for King St.)
But to my astonishment, the young man lifted his sleeve and checked his watch, just like the dinosaurs did. No way.
It’s 9:15 he said. I had only been there for 45 minutes. NO WAY.
My favorite new fun fact from the visit: a group of goldfish is called a ‘troubling’.
Prior to learning that, I always thought crows had the coolest name for a group of animals (a murder). A ‘troubling’ is hilarious considering how dangerous the goldfish is (I think you’d have to choke on one for it to kill you) and a ‘murder’ is a little too serious (crows might just be smart enough to do it, don’t cross them).
Others receiving votes: ravens (a conspiracy), butterflies (a kaleidoscope), giraffes (a tower) and porcupines (a prickle).
A group of hummingbirds is called a ‘charm’ but who has ever seen a group of hummingbirds before?
“A Troubling Photograph”
Then there is, of course, the classic:
A school of fish.
Big fella letting everyone know school’s out for the day.
Alright let me leave earth real quick.
It seems like the government has all but confirmed extra-terrestrial life in this universe. There is tape and testimony from some of our military’s highest officials saying that they have come across things that they can’t explain.
You try to imagine what that life-form might look like. How different from humans they could look and still share this universe, this reality?
Well whatever you imagined, it’s not as alien, as foreign, as utterly un-earthly as the jellyfish.
I got lost in their movements, their unrecognizable parts, their careless flow. They are mesmerizing, every time.
And the way Ripley’s displays them, with the lighting, mirrors and out-of-this-world soundtrack, is thrilling. I’ve seen this ten times but I still couldn’t believe my eyes.
If you tell me that aliens exist, I believe you. Because jellyfish exist.
Oh yeah - a group of jellyfish is called a ‘smack’. I would have gone with a ‘visiting’ or an ‘encounter’.
Whatever you can say about the jellyfish, you could also say about the eel. What was God cooking up with those guys!?
A group of eels is called a ‘bed’. A bed of eels. No thank you.
When I was a kid I remember hearing tale (tail) of an underwater aquarium, one where you could walk under the sharks, reaching out to almost touch them as they swam above you. I couldn’t believe there was such a place. I dreamt of going.
It turns out it did exist, at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, 268 miles from my house and 1200 miles from the ocean. And you know what, I eventually got to visit when I was thirteen or so. It was as magical as I had ever imagined. Maybe more so.
Thanks to Kristen for the new profile pic.
I wish I could send the photo above to myself as a kid, when a place like that was still just a dream, yet to be confirmed and explored.
The photo is of me, doing what I love, an underwater aquarium; one where you can reach out to almost touch the sharks as they swim above you.
And they’re open ‘til 11 tonight.
A group of sting-rays is called a ‘fever’. So this is a light fever.