Aloha friends and welcome to a large underwater photography blog post. For a little while now I have been wanting to explore some bright and beautiful creatures to photograph as it would be something new for me to explore, so, I invited my dad to take me to the Sea Life Centre in town so I could take photos and we could both marvel at the beauty of what lies under the deep blue seas. I feel like I have visited there before as a youngster but I hardly remember it at all and I'm kind of guessing, but my dad had never been so he didn't need much convincing.

I had been excited to go since the moment he agreed and we set a day, I scribbled it in my diary and counted down the days. I felt like a kid in a candy shop spoilt for choice. I was full of awe and kept saying "this is so cool!" to my dad with, big eyes and a beaming smile on my face. We both really enjoyed the experience and the delightful friendliness of the staff. I think it will sit fresh and bold in my mind for a while, until my next photography adventure.

I used my standard lens and kept it on aperture priority so my dad didn't have to wait around for me to perfect the manual settings with each tank and we had plenty of time to visit each kind of fish. A lot of the images were blurry as nothing stayed still and the glass between me and what I was taking the photos of really messed with the focus so nothing is perfect but I still REALLY wanted to share, as well as highly recommend going to visit your local aquariums or oceans to appreciate the hidden wildlife of the seas.

So prepare yourselves ladies and gentlemen and everyone inbetween, I have a fair few photos to show you...

I am SO happy with how crisp this one came out. I love the bright colours and textures of coral and how they seem to make up an underwater city and tie together the dull rocks with all the varying sea creatures.

I like this one because the slow shutter speed meant the bubbles all blurred together and made the water look soft. I also love the different textures and colours in this tank, each atmosphere was so unique and beautiful.

Near the very start of the winding route around each exhibit there was a very large tank full of tubes and colourful coral and two or three types of fish. It was one of my favourites because there was just so much to see. The left of this picture looks a little odd because of he rounding of the glass, the tanks with curved glass to look through were very trippy and difficult to photograph through.

The first and last thing you saw at the centre was the penguins, who took continuous laps in the water so it was fairly easy to try and get the shot again if you missed it.

I know the focus isn't good on this one but I'm quite pleased I captured the bubbles and tiny wave the penguin made when it came up for air and dived back under.

I like this sting ray because he was just lying on the gravel, half buried in it with eyes that kind of say "do not come anywhere near me peasants"

Another glorious - and massive - sting ray was this big guy in the biggest tank, which featured a tunnel for you to walk through. He did laps around the tank and sometimes cut though the large bubble stream which I captured here. Me and my dad were memorised by him gliding through the water like he owned the place.

Honestly, the fish weren't as colourful and vibrant as I expected but I still found an appreciation for all the different species all the same. To those who know me well, it's no secret yellow is my favourite colour, so enjoy this yellow fish I took a lovely photo of.

This was also taken in the shark tunnel. I love the sense of depth in this photo and the bright red fish in the foreground.

It took me so long to get a sharp photo of the piranhas as I left the shutter speed to do it's own thing and they swam around and around the tank in  a group but I was determined and caught this one when they slowed down for a moment. I loved how they looked shiny and reflective so I just HAD to get a photo of their uniqueness.

Another group of fish - school if you like - swam around the shark tunnel together. They also had quite a shiny appearance but I took this photo of them to capture the strange sense of community about this tank, in which so many different species of fish and sea creature lived amongst each other peacefully.

The shark tunnel gave me some very blue photos, so if you're curious as to which animals lived with the sharks your best guess is ones with a blue hue (aside from the penguins and jelly fish). My dad and I loved this place the most because of how breathtaking it was to be surrounded by so many different species majestically flowing all around. It gave me another sense of appreciation for these sea creatures and their sheer beauty that left me in awe.

While we were in the shark tunnel a staff member gave a talk about the whole tank. As he introduced his favourite animal in the tank, he appeared out of no where behind me. I quickly turned to take a few snaps as he began to glide his large self over our heads.

I had to take a picture of this fish because of how unique and, well stripy, he is. Even the eyeball has a ring of stripes around it, he's such an interestingly decorated fish.

I really liked this tank full of fish because they didn't move. They sort of just hovered in mid water so it was easy for me to take a picture of them. I say easy, they were so still my camera didn't know what to focus on, so it took a few tries but I got this salvageable one in the end.

One of my very favourite areas were the star fish because of this, it's just so interesting how they cling onto the walls and just chill. It was even a little amusing when they were half stuck and half folded over backwards, it didn't look too comfortable but that didn't seem to bother them one bit. There was one particular star fish with long sucker things that danced over the glass.

I'd have liked to seen the octopus to get some interesting and perhaps similar shots like this, but he was hidden in the shadows of his tank.

The jelly fish were also another of my favourites. They had two tanks of babies, a tank of 3 large orange jelly fish with frilly tentacles and two tanks of these, one of which had a colour changing light and their whole bodies lit up with it, the flower shaped bottom practically being the light themselves, it was very cool.

I really like this close up because you can see the veins and tiny, thin strands around the rim of the jelly fish.

And I've left possibly one of my most favourite image to last. I love the vibrant colour and crisp focus on the fish. There was a whole small tank filled with loads of little clown fish and I loved taking some photos of them all clustered together.

I really hope you enjoy this new subject matter. I'd LOVE to return in a few months or years and commit to full manual mode and perhaps even make an aesthetic af video out of these beautiful beings and really encourage you to go and appreciate sea life, or at least think twice about how your actions may affect their large watery home and look after these beauties - there were many signs asking you not to eat endangered species or litter along the shore.