OK - I need a break from those mega-assortment posts, and this photo is my hands-down favorite from the aquarium, so it fully deserves to be shared on its own...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 52mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6. ISO 6400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw, and additional adjustments in Photoshop CS5.

This little pygmy cuttlefish sure put on quite the display for us. I'm not quite sure what caught his attention, but he was in full show.

Due to the low lighting, the shot required a fairly wide aperture (best this lens can do at that focal length) and a high ISO, so there was quite a bit of noise reduction done to make the image presentable. Unfortunately, as I'm learning, this causes the image to lose some sharpness, so I had to run a thin line between removing the noise and keeping the image from getting too soft.

All in all (especially considering I haven't delved into this too much) I'm pretty happy with the results. Now if only I could get to see something like that on a dive!

- Bill