Alexandru_Todor
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo while visiting the Tropicarium in Budapest. It's a place that shows all kinds of aqatic life, from reptiles to fish, to aquatic birds and more. A great place to take photos of some exotic animals that you wouldn't find normally.Time
This was taken a bit after noon, around 1 o'clock, however the time of day didn't really affect the photo in any way, being a closed enviroment.Lighting
As I said above, the photo was taken inside so I only had the artificial lighting to work with. I usually don't like using flash because I feel it changes the original scene too much. This is also because I only have the built-in flash to work with. For darker scenes such as this I prefer to pump up the ISO enough for me to get the shutter speed I want, even if that means a little noise. In this case flash would have been a bad option anyway because the subject was behind glass so all I would have gotten was the reflection.Equipment
I took this photo with my Nikon D3100 and the kit lens and nothing else. I was still at the begining of my photographical journey and this was all I had.Inspiration
When I went to the Tropicarium, I didn't have any particular photo in mind. I was just hoping for some shots of exotic wildlife. As I was passing by the tank in which this little guy was in I immediately knew the shot I wanted. He was just floating there with his head above the water and I was hoping he wouldn't move 'till I got the shot. Everyone was close to the window and I figured one might bang on it and scare him, but I got lucky and he posed for me.Editing
I shoot in raw and as I said, I don't like using flash. Because of this I pump up my ISO to what I feel is an acceptable noise level. So I usually underexpose my shots in cases like these to keep the noise levels down and I bring back the exposure in post, which is what I did here. Other than that, I removed some of the noise, boosted the contrast a bit and the shadows and played around with the vibrance to bring out the colours a bit.In my camera bag
I'm still relatively a beginner so there's not very much. I have upgraded to a D7200, which is my main camera now, paired with a Sigma 17-50 f:2.8. This is what I take with me always. Sometimes I also bring with me my Nikon 35mm 1.8 and the Tamron 70-300 f1:4-5.6 macro.Feedback
Don't use flash because all you'll get is reflections. If possible, bring a camera with better ISO performance. And most importantly, look around and visualize the shot you want and hope you get lucky and your subject cooperates. Good luck!