Jellyfish - Monterey Bay Aquarium

Jellyfish are interesting, right?  They are the original drifters.  Talk about being laid back - they just float around and let the current lead them where it may.  If they bump into some food, good for them.  As humans we are so conditioned to “make things happen” and to “get it done” that it is hard to imagine living this way, but it obviously works for them.  They don’t even have brains or a central nervous system, so they are sort of like the oceanic version of a zombie.  But hey, there are a lot of them, so they are doing something right!

Anyways, they are fun to watch and I enjoyed hanging out with them at The Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA last week.  It’s a great aquarium and I was happy to make a return visit since it has been 10+ years since my last visit there.  I have seen a lot of cool shots of jellies over the years, but never had any to call my own.  Going in, this was one thing that I really wanted to photograph, but it’s kinda hard you know?  It’s really crowded and hard to get close, and of course it’s fairly dark in there, except inside their tank which is a bright blue, they reside behind really thick glass - oh and did I mention they are in constant motion? - so I went with a very wide aperture and high ISO -  f/5 and ISO 1600, -1EV and 1/30 of a second, to be precise - and was able to capture some decent shots.

I also spent some time snapping a bunch of other creatures, and will see about sprinkling those guys into the blog as well.  But, I have so many “scenery” shots that more of those will come first!  And tomorrow, a fairy tale village sort of thing!