This picture is taken with my Sony F-717.  The lighting was 220 watts of actinic blue and 500 watts of 10k MH lighting.  I would say that the best advice that I can give is to always make sure that your using the optical zoom (never digital zoom) and use a tripod to steady the shot.  I love snapping off pictures, not very good at it yet, but I'm getting there.

I'm also a firm believer in using macro lenses for close up shots and cleaning them up in Photoshop. 

sean: np! a trade would be great! i''l let you and tflowers know when i have some. i'll start a new thread sometime soon and post the rest of my zoos.

kini: nice shark! very pretty ... how big will it get?

jake: thats also much how i feel ... i was just curious if people had any strong opinions about it.

photoshop is one of the things that i do really well and i know how easy it is to make something look completely different that the reality... so, i guess i would say that i do care if the images i see images are edited to "enhance" the picture and not just "represent" the picture.

i guess, i would equate it to telling a "fish story" <pun intended>. Everything gets just a little bit better and that 13" brown that you caught turns into a 17" by the time you tell your buddy about it .

As long as we are sharing pictures here is one of my favorites.  The picture itself is not that great but it is a bamboo shark that I hatched we my tank was more of a FOWLR than a reef.

Adam Blundell wrote:  So is it cheating????? Sure, but who cares.

 I would say it is not cheating unless you purposely change the picture to misrepresent the actual specimen you are taking a picture of.  Most digital cameras do not give real to life colors, but with photoshop you can fix that and provide a closer representation of what you are photographing.

thanks man! i pulled the camera out of the box shot a couple of shots. slapped on the macro and shot a couple more. i have NOT looked at the manual or or any instructions yet... but the potential for fun seems endless to me, i've got lots to learn!  which should be the best part of it!

no frags yet -- my tank is still getting its feet ( 6 months and counting ), but i'll post them here as soon as i do! thanks for the compliments!