I recently found out November 3rd has been designated World Jellyfish day. Jellyfish are an amazing species, having existed for hundreds of millions of years. The intent behind the special date is to raise awareness of their importance to the ecosystem and conservation.

I hope one day I’m able to document jellies in the wild. I find their graceful swimming and floating to be mesmerizing. Even those who are not bioluminescent make beautiful photography subjects due to their soft translucent forms. One of my favourite photos to take and edit was of a smack of sea jellies.

I snapped this photo at the California Science Center using a Canon 6D with a 40mm/2.8f lens. The area with the sea jellies was quite dark and provided an interesting challenge. I had to take the photo without flash, handheld, through glass, and among a large crowd of people.

The jellyfish themselves were under black lighting. Even though they gave off a soft glow, the area was rather dark. I set the aperture to 2.8f - the lowest my 40 mm lens would go.

The next settings to consider were shutter speed and ISO. With the darkness of the area, I needed to set things low enough to properly expose the shots, but fast enough to avoid motion blur and under exposure. I found 1/250 with 3200 ISO to do the trick. I would have liked to have utilized an even slower shutter speed, but I tend be a little shaky hand holding my camera.

Hopefully I didn’t bother too many people while I snapped my photos. Whenever I am photographing in public spaces I try not to be a nuisance to others. Since I new I was working with a shallow depth of field, I picked out one jelly to focus on and track as it glided through the water. I was able to get a handful of decent shots before moving on.

Editing was done using Lightroom. The challenge with this step was the create an image that seemed to come from the ocean and not the other side of aquarium glass. From the start, I took inspiration from the video game ~flOw~. The game has the feeling of being in the deep ocean, and I wanted my image to exude that as well. With this in mind, I adjusted the highlights and shadows to darken the background and give the main jelly a neon glow.

Maintaining the details while adjusting the lights and darks was delicate balancing act. The jellyfish has thin tendrils that I didn't want to lose while adjusting the darks and light. Making them stand out noticeably blew out the brightest areas of the image. Having too many areas of light also threw off the overall composition of the image. I found a happy medium with them being just visible. At a glance, the thin tendrils create a soft halo around the the edge of the main jellyfish. for the viewer taking their time with the image, they are a nice surprise of detail.

Out of camera, the image had a very blue tint to the overall image. With ~flOw~ in mind, I used colour grading to change the shadows to black and the mid tones to a nice vibrant purple. Not only is purple my favourite colour, but it also gives off a mysterious vibe, much like the hungry organisms in ~flOw~. The high contrast of colours also helped refine the sharpness of the main jellyfish, which was an added bonus.

Images like this one are great for learning the art of photography. This subject presented a set of learning experiences that I can take with me when photographing in other situations. Learning to master low light settings and get creative with basic editing is something I’ve strived to do since having good lighting or even a flash is not always possible.

I find animals (and nature in general) to be wonderful photography subjects. This photo may have been taken in an aquarium, but I hope the subject of the image brings some awe to the viewer. It is a small reminder that we share this planet with some truly amazing and mysterious creatures.