Chattanooga's Tennessee Aquarium: Part 1
This past summer, my wife and I visited the Chattanooga area and spent an afternoon at the Tennessee Aquarium.
On a mild summer day at the end of June, we took a short trip to downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee from our temporary home at the Chanticleer Inn Bed & Breakfast atop Georgia's Lookout Mountain. Our ten-minute drive from Chanticleer brought us to the aquarium, which is located just steps away from the Tennessee River.
The weather was perfect. Temperatures were in the low to mid-70s, with partly cloudy skies and no rain in sight. It was unfortunate that the exhibits weren't outside, but it was a pleasant day nonetheless, both inside and out.
Here is what we saw on our aquarium journey.
This is the first of two buildings that host tons of ocean, river, and wetland exhibits.
Around the east side of the building, you'll find this guy hanging out with his recent catch. He looked pretty dirt-covered and didn't move. I figured he was just posing for the camera, but after several minutes, there wasn't even a blink. There are some strange people in Tennessee.
A very brief walk to the north side of the grounds and then across a street...you'll find the Tennessee River.
Between the two buildings on the river side, there is a small flower garden.
And there was a busy little bee trying to kill the flowers.
Just leave 'em alone! They aren't hurting you, bee!
We made it all the way around the first building and arrived at the second.
Then we decided to actually go inside. First up on the exhibit list: seahorses and starfish.
He caught me taking his picture without consent.
This one wasn't even a seahorse. It was more like a sea dragon. Can seadragons breathe fire underwater?
This one wasn't scorching anything at the moment.
"Hi, guys! I'm a seahorse too!"
We didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. He was so happy being part of the seahorse exhibit. Who are we to question his reality?
This is the ever-so-comfortable sea-pillow. It's a rare and kind of useless species. Who needs a pillow when you're already floating in water?
Here we have the always tasty sea-marshmallow. They're best with graham crackers and chocolate.
"Touch the glass bro. I need to feel some human contact."
We were getting the side-eye from this fella.
"Time to go, Hal. These people don't care about you anyway."
On that note, we moved on to the next exhibit.
That's all for Part 1! Don't miss the next installment where we take on otters and reptiles...including some joke-telling turtles! It'll be fun for the whole family!
Great job at capturing those images! Last time I tried to take photo at the Melbourne Aquarium most were slightly blurry and noisy from iso, but it's really dark and I got a crap camera so no help there :)
What was the iso and shutter most of the time?
ISO was between 3200-6400, mostly. Shutter speeds were mostly between 1/100 and 1/200.
Fortunately, I had the full-frame Canon 6D for this adventure, so there isn't too much noise. I probably could have gone higher with the ISO.
Lovely photos interspersed with witty commentary - not much dialogue though. I found that existential nothingness when visiting the Toronto Aquarium - I found the seahorses very taciturn, albeit graceful, but still - one must respond to company, I think.
@ats-david - Amazing pictures of the aqueous creatures. Such clarity is difficult to achieve for me while taking pictures through glass and water. I love the sea horse and also your creative captions. The one about 'need human contact bro' is the best . LOL
The picture of the bee is also so sharp. Amazing photography. I write wildlife awareness blogs with a funny twist. I wish I could get such amazing pictures.
Thanks for sharing. Upvoted full.
Regards,
@vm2904
It wasn't easy. And add to that the fact that it was pretty dark in there and using a flash wasn't an option. I had to bump the ISO pretty high and slow down the shutter speed a bit. Good thing I was working with a Canon 6D!
The camera was still fairly new for me at the time, so the pictures weren't as good as they could have been. I'll have to try again in the near future.
I suppose you pressed your lens against the glass to avoid refelections? At what ISO did you shoot?
We have a large aquarium too in my hometown and your pictures gave me some idea's... thanks for that.
And indeed, who are we to question his reality??? 😂 Love it!
I wasn't pressed up against the glass, but I was pretty close to it.
Just checking some of the photos, it looks like I was mostly shooting between ISO 3200-6400. But they were still a bit dark. I had to adjust the exposure in Lightroom for the indoor photos here.
Don't you get a lot of noise at 6400? I do press my lens to the glass in those cases and when I don't have a tripod with me... that way my camera is more stable and I can use a longer shutter time, avoiding going high in ISO. But it doesn't always work... no problem with fish, but if you try that with monkeys you get a closeup of their nose 😂
Anyway, thanks for the much appreciated upvote! But, I was wondering...after you upvoted a whole army started to do the same, I almost had to hide in the bushes 😜🙃😜 Are you some kind of general ?😉
I get some noise at 6400, but it’s not too bad for the size of the images or the subjects in them. If I were to fully zoom in, I’d probably get different results.
I was recently shooting in a bar/club on 16,000+ and the results were fine. Having that full-frame censor makes a huge difference and I’ve only heard great things about the 6D’s performance in low light.
You know...now that I think about it...I kind of am a general!
🎖🎖🎖😄
He's either shooting you the finger or very interested in you.
Ha! I thought it was the finger too, but now you mention it....yeah I'm leaning towards very interested LOL
Nice collection of pictures! We really enjoyed the TN Aquarium on our visit to Chattanooga! Unfortunately, the last time we were there, we found ourselves there over a dreary weekend, so we didn't wander the grounds, just went straight for inside.
My son loves all things aquatic, so the exhibits there are always a hit. Thanks for sharing!!
There aren't tons of things to see or do on the outside. They have those tree and bush bridges and the flower garden, but not much else. There were some kind of little water falls that trickled down between the two buildings that some kids were playing in...or bathing in...maybe both. Perhaps I just wasn't too impressed with it because we were staying up on the mountain and had great views for our entire trip. (More of that will be coming soon as well!)
That's cool, thanks for filling in the details a little.
We're over in Nashville, so not like it would be that much of a hardship to make the trip back on a nice day. The River view looks nice, but as you say, if you have better views elsewhere, then you might not be as impressed. I can look out my office building windows at the Cumberland River, so I might not be all that impressed standing next to the river. who knows.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Here, in front of an aquarium, children come back ... The amazement takes hold of us.
Thanks for sharing these photos. The aquarium looks really high-class! How did you get the seahorse in focus like that with no flash? Whenever I try to take aquarium photos they come out blurry. @ironshield
I think I was shooting with manual focus. Because of the different lighting, I was having some trouble with auto-focus, even on single-point. Of course, one of the downsides with being on manual is that I missed a lot of great shots by just a hair. We'll see some of those in the upcoming posts...if I decide to use them.
I have an SLR camera that I treat like a point-and-shoot. I may do better taking the time using the manual settings, although you are correct, sometimes those great shots slip by. @ironshield
awesome photography very clear you must have a very high megapixel camera.thanks for sharing..nice post
That picture really does look like a sea marshmallow! Makes me want some S'mores!!
The mountains in North Georgia really are some of the most beautiful in North America!
I need to check out this aquarium the next time I'm in Chattanooga!
Nice pics and looks like a great time. Cool architecture on the aquarium as well.