# Some shots of my CICHLIDS...



## AQUASAUR

Some of You, may be still remember those Cichlid tank of mine and these 'Red Albino Oscars Lovers'


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## cichlidaholic

Yes, I remember that post!

Beautiful pics, as always!

Kim


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## chapman76

I remember too. It was a pretty tank. Great pics as always!


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## AQUASAUR

Thanks, Pals !

Here is my young Green Terror:










and one "Art" picture







of my Vieja Warrior:


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## AQUASAUR

And some of the other inhabitantsâ€¦


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## shatrunjai

Beauti indeed, but would have been perfect if were natural, Fantastic health these guys have otherwise, Bravo work

God Bless you


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## Territorial

Those are some awesome American cichlids. You kinda make me want to have these.


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## AQUASAUR

Here is another compares between shooting with EF 50 mm. f/1.8 II lens 
+ tank lightning ( the first two shots)
and EF 50 mm/f2.5 Compact-Macro lens + external flashes - Canon Speedlite 430 and 580EX(the last one shot)


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## chapman76

A lot less noise in the picture. I don't like BP's, but they look as good as they can in your pictures. Well taken care of and top notch color.

Are your pictures published in magazines? Just curious.


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## Rift485

Do you have any full shots of the Green Terror or Vieja? Great fish once again.


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## AQUASAUR

chapman76 said:


> A lot less noise in the picture. I don't like BP's, but they look as good as they can in your pictures. Well taken care of and top notch color.
> 
> Are your pictures published in magazines? Just curious.


Thanks, Pal !
No, my photos are still available only in my favorite forums in the Net â€¦
Iâ€™m not professional Photographer and made them just for own pleasureâ€¦ :idea: 
I have no time and wish to take it serious and make some â€œbusinessâ€


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## AQUASAUR

Rift485 said:


> Do you have any full shots of the Green Terror or Vieja? Great fish once again.


Yes, I got plenty of old shots, but I donâ€™t like them enoughâ€¦ :wink: 
I hope soon will get more good shots of all my Cichlids and will share them here!


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## AQUASAUR

So, I decide to variegate this American cichlids series of my fishes
with some shots of Africanâ€™s cichlids, which I was made being guest in a friend of mineâ€¦


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## AQUASAUR

Oh, I just can't believe? 
First time I decide to post Africans cichlid photo series here
In those Africans Cichlid Kingdom-site and nobody said a word :roll:

Obviously, I have to continue only with my Americans pets :wink:


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## RDFISHGUY

Love the oscars, excellent photography! Nice salt pics too .


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## phish4fun

Beautiful pictures of the Americans and the Africans. You've captured some great detail in those close-ups. My husband is the photographer in our family. Now if I could just get him interested in photographing fish, we'd be set  .


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## AQUASAUR

So, continuing with this my favorite American's Cichlid specimen - *Apistogramma Cacatuoides *

Here is one of my males, who you know yet very well:










the female:










and it's my older male close up:










...the back half part of the body is not in the least impressive, though:


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## cuddlefish

Aquasaur, your fish are spectacular and your photography is breathtaking. I would love to know more about your setups - how many tanks you have, filtration, feeding, etc. Clearly you are a master fishkeeper and it would be great to gain some insight into your experience. One thing I'm dying to know... where do you get such amazing fish!


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## AQUASAUR

Thanks, Cuddlefish!
May be a few


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## chapman76

Beautiful as always Hristo. Not only are the pictures second to none, the quality of the fish is great. Those are orange flash, correct?

You're right, the back half looks like it's taken a beating. Still they're impressive. Cacs have always been a favorite of mine. My orange flash and my triple reds were some of my favorites.


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## cuddlefish

AQUASAUR said:


> Thanks, Cuddlefish!
> May be â€œa fewâ€


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## Rift485

I've always thought that your pictures deserve to be in a museum! Honestly, every single one of those photos could be put together into a descriptive book about cichlids and it would be right up there with the best! Thanks so much for sharing and keep up the good work


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## AQUASAUR

Thank you, Pals! It's very very big compliment for my photos

So, there is a doubt with my friends about those young Geo of mine???
And I got a question to Geo Experts is this specimen is Proximus


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## AnnaFish

I have to ask:

Do you take pictures of these fish and then with photoshop cut them out and place them on a different background?

It makes the photogoraphy of the fish no less fantastic. There is great focus and sharpness. I'm not implying that this cheapens your images in any way. I'm just curious. Trying to see if my eyes decieve me.


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## NorthShore

AQUASAUR said:


> Thanks, Cuddlefish!
> May be â€œa fewâ€


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## AnnaFish

...Okay... Doing it with one nicely shot fish is one thing... but fabricating an entire tank?

If I am wrongly accusing you then I apologize. But something about those images just isn't quite right.

Artistically it is impressive. A lot of good photogoraphy AND good photoshopping went into all of these.

But to neglect to add a disclaimer? Or did I just miss it?


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## AQUASAUR

Thanks Gerry! But how couldn't you just spy into all this fake photos of mineâ€¦ their counterfeit :idea:









Anna, I'm just a young, free and single man who has the whole time in the world


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## AnnaFish

I'm not sure if you are denying my claims or not.

But what you have done is not that time consuming.

I think that they are absolutely beautiful. I just think that it is unfair to some of the other people on this site:

Taking beautiful photos of their fish is very important to them. It is wrong to play them this way. Some of this site's members are in awe of your photography skills, and are dreaming of the day when they can match you. But it won't happen. Because all of those photos are doctored.

Cleaning up photos is one thing. Doing things in photoshop that can be done in a dark room (color adjustments, brightness, contrast, cropping, so on...) still fits in the realm of digital photography. But you are using a tablet and layer masks to fake depth of field and composition. Your color adjustments border outrageous. It is now digital art.

I will state again -- these are beautiful! And they WOULD do very well in an artistic photo-book of cichlids. (However to put these photos in a scientific catalog of fish species would not be acceptable. Whereas many of the photos other members of these site have taken really do belong there.)

But other aspiring fish photographers like Blair and Becca, Nigalius, NorthShore... they all need to know that these are not simple photos. They are composited, adjusted... time was devoted to them outside of the camera. (Again... it doesn't take THAT much time.)

Again again -- they are beautiful.


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## AQUASAUR

WOW! It's really very strongly words and claims kicking me out :-? 
First, I'm wondering is it the rights â€œeverybody to talk and share free


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## AnnaFish

Um.. I never said you were a cheater or that you should get kicked out. I just said that other photographers should know that you are doctoring the photos. So that they understand why none of their photos look like that...

I will say again that I really enjoy them. Because I mean it.

EDIT: and before you get all offended again-- doctored doesn't neccessarily mean faked. It just means touched up. Adjusted. Messed about with. I am not denying that you are taking beautiful photos -- you ARE. Everything that you have shown us has been very professional. It's just not something that can be acheived by mere lighting, lenses, and focus adjustments. Yes I used the word 'fake' in some of my post. But I didn't mean to say that any peice of your photos was falsified. It's just not the original composition.

You can take this however you like. I'm done trying to convince you that this wasn't meant to be a personal attack. I'm just looking out for the other aspiring photographers on the site.


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## AQUASAUR

AnnaFish said:


> It's the first time I've ever tried to take pics of my fish. All the other photos were taken by my fiance.


Yes, it was obviously for me that you're a kind of Virgin about Aquatic photography :wink: 
It's very often, much people, whose didn't know to many things about those photography genre,
have no practice, or even have not a few ones really great shots about :-? 
Just try to explain every unusual


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## AnnaFish

This is the last time I am going to say anything.

Yes I am an aquatic photography virgin.

But I am not a photography virgin. And I am not a photoshop virgin either.

And I stand by everything I said.

As for your geo, I cannot see the first two links. But there are a lot of similarities between your fish and the third pic.


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## AQUASAUR

May be some of you remember Those Guy from my Christmas greeting card
( http://www.petshop-zoomania.com/Mix/Chr ... 20Card.jpg )
Here is a present close upâ€¦and a couple of â€œArtâ€


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## Rift485

Never gonna let that one go huh lol :lol:

I like the water color


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## AQUASAUR

Thank you!


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## AQUASAUR

So, I got only a minute this morning to get a few snapshots of These Fellows...
As I see now...their solid color is not easy to be captured...bur anyway, I hope you'll like this couple:

*Lifalili Jewel Cichlid*


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## gfry

Wow. Just wow.


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## DiscusQueen

Hi there... As always awesome photos of awesome fish... Congrats and keeep em coming I love seeing your work. Sue


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## Toasted

Excellent Pics. I love how oscars seem to love getting in front of the camera.


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## stephenxanders

Wow you have a lot. I admire you for having them with you. I am not that much of a fish lover, I usually like birds more because they can be touched 

However, it's quite inspiring to see other people enjoying fish


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## edburress

AQUASAUR said:


> Now, IÃ¯Â¿Â½m back on my question about my GeoÃ¯Â¿Â½
> I bought him like Ã¯Â¿Â½ProximusÃ¯Â¿Â½, but some friends identify like Ã¯Â¿Â½Red head TapajosÃ¯Â¿Â½ or Ã¯Â¿Â½AltifronsÃ¯Â¿Â½ Ã¯Â¿Â½


_Geophagus_ "TapajÃƒÂ³s Orange Head" (red head is the same)


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## AQUASAUR

Thank you, everyone!

Here is a more couple shots of That Happy Family of my Red Jewel Cichlids...

The happy Mother with the Fry:









and a macro close up of the meticulous Father:


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## redburner

LOL to all of you who dare to accuse Hristo in fabricating his images... just shame on you.. I dont remember who said it, but someone asked if he'd cut the fish in photoshop and past them on a different background? HAHAHA that is just the funniest **** ever  Im a photoshop guru, its what I do, Ill tell you kids, those images are 100% genuine. All it took was a good SLR, good lens, great flash and some colour balance in PS. 
Kudos to Hristo for his great fish! And kids.. just can it!


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## AQUASAUR

Yes, a very well said! Thank you, mate!

Ã¢â‚¬Å"Oscars BattleÃ¢â‚¬Â


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## AQUASAUR

A little update with my young *Red-Spot Severum*


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## AQUASAUR

A couple of shots again of my Red Albino Oscars:


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## DJRansome

Beautiful, especially that first shot.


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## Sparrk

those shots with the jewels too are amazing!!


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