Tiger Stripes
Mar, 2014Views
441
Likes
Awards
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
Peer Award
Jaw Dropping
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I was very lucky in college because I had the opportunity to study abroad. One of my adventures was traveling to China and exploring both rural villages and urban cities. When I would visit a new city, on top of visiting historical sites, I always wanted to go see what the aquariums were like. I believe this photo was taken at an aquarium in Beijing, and while taking this photo, is was also a really cool experience to be able to read the descriptions in Chinese.Time
Traveling to China was a very daunting experience because it is a country with roughly 1.3 billion people. While studying in Beijing, my teachers would give me advice on how to try to make it feel smaller and less foreign. One of their best recommendations was to try and find similarities to activities that interested me back home. Therefore, on my first exploration of Beijing alone, I came across an aquarium and quickly began to feel right at home. I took this photo on an early Saturday morning walk, not only because I was entranced by it, but also because it marked the first step to relinquishing my fears on being in completely different surroundings.Lighting
The aquarium had many fascinating exhibits and the cool aspect about the jellyfish was that each tank had different lighting. Some were colored with hues of blue or red, and some even had their own light show. However, I appreciated the fact that for my photo, the room was dimly lit so that the light in the tank was brighter, providing a better contrast, and allowed for the colors in my photo to pop.Equipment
This shot was captured with a Samsung WP10 camera that has a f/3.6 lens. Almost all of my photos have been taken with this camera, an iPhone 4 or with an iPhone 6. I do not own any other equipment.Inspiration
I absolutely love aquariums. I love the individuality and beauty of all the different types of sea creatures. I particularly have a fascination with jellyfish because they are so graceful and appear to possess complete serenity as they glide and almost dance through the water. I took this photo because it amazed me that even though it was a jellyfish, it had the appearance of something as majestic as a tiger; hence why I decided to call it Tiger Stripes.Editing
The only photo-processing software I have is what comes standard in iPhoto. Occasionally I will do minor touch-ups or photo adjustments to try and improve the final outcome. For this particular photo, all that was done was that I cropped it to enhance the colors and bring out the tiny details on its surface.In my camera bag
I am very much a novice photographer and therefore on a day-to-day basis only carry the camera itself. More recently, I've been using my iPhone because it's easier to carry, which allows me more opportunities to take photos quicker than if I had to set up extra equipment. However, I do hope to eventually have more camera accessories in order to take more complex pictures.Feedback
I'm sure this has been mentioned previously, but for me, it is having a great deal amount of patience and not overthinking it in order to obtain a desired result. It can be very hard to take a "perfect" photo, and actually there may be no such thing, but I can't let that stop me from trying to capture what I believe is a good picture. I also believe a great factor is pausing every now and then to simply observe what's around you. It is definitely true that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", in that different sceneries will appear differently to different people, but as long as it appeals to the photographer, then it is worth capturing to be a preserved memory.
