“What the heck is that?”

My best guess is that it’s a rusty steel drum made up to represent an underwater scene. I took that shot near the end of our visit to the Long Beach aquarium. I’m telling you that as a way to let readers know that these photos are not in order, and the title gives away the plan to spread the photos from that visit into multiple posts.

January 2, 2019, was the day we planned to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, which is the actual name of the place (click on the name to visit their homepage).

That link has a lot of information about the place, the exhibits, and lots of photos. Photos that are better than mine, so, if interested, that might be the better plan of action . . . or you can proceed with reading what I have to say about it and looking at the photos and videos I took.

If you’re in the area, let me suggest you make the time to visit the place. Some neat stuff to be seen.

A quick word . . . I won’t post all the photos because some are near-duplicates of each other (a mix of P900 and Note 8 captures). However, there are a number of videos. They won’t play well with the slideshow at the end of the post, so if you want to watch them in SmugMug rather than here, go to the gallery and manually choose them to play.

Let me explain about the photos . . . handheld with either the Note 8 or P900 and trying to shoot through throngs of people with kids. I processed them as best as I could, but the P900 is not a low-light camera (neither was the Note 8 if hand-held). None of the photos are worth pixel-peeping, but if you so desire, SmugMug is where you can do that.

I normally add music when I remove the soundtrack of a video, but I just left these silent.

“Why did you remove the soundtrack?”

Let me answer you by letting you hear the original . . .

And that’s one of the quiet videos. Most are much louder. BUT . . . if you love the sound of screaming kids, let me know, and I’ll see if I can find the fortitude to upload the originals and provide you with a link.

Nota bene: That’s a joke. No matter how much you beg, I won’t do it because I don’t wish that on anyone.

One reason the photos will be grouped is that because of the people who would crowd displays, I often moved to displays with fewer people in front of them.

So, for instance, not only don’t I know or remember individual photos, but I’m not even sure if the last two photos are from the same tank as the video (I don’t think so).

I’m reasonably certain the following video is from the tank as the first video, nut ‘looking up’.

These are big tanks, and while they look crowded, it’s not unlike some of my snorkeling experiences. There be lots of fish in the ocean.

I took photos of interesting fish but didn’t bother identifying them. Somewhere I have a chart with tropical fish, but, again, I can’t be bothered to hunt it down. However, if you’re ambitious, knock yourself out (LINK).

I think the next photo is from a different display and also from the Note 8.

The Note 8 — like many smartphones — has some automatic enhancement features that can sometimes improve the look of the photo. I try to not use the settings, but sometimes it helps.

This next photo and video are from the P900. If someone is considering buying it and aren’t impressed with the videos, know that I had it set to manual settings for the photos. I should have switched to the automatic mode for the videos, but it was easier shooting everything at the same settings.

Viewers might have noticed the non-fish in the shot. A number of the videos show divers that are either feeding the aquatic denizens or giving a lecture on a particular aspect of the display (their voices are piped to overhead speakers . . . very loud overhead speakers).

But, seeing them in there reminds me of this cartoon . . .

I know these next photos are from a different display . . . I think.

I think this next set is from yet another tank.

That’s not similar to my snorkeling experiences . . . if it had been, I’d have clouded the waters, I think.

That tank had lots of interesting fish . . .

Before you play the next video, look for a moment at what could pass for my twin interfacing with the world at large (upper right of the frame).

Here are a few more photos from those tanks before moving on . . .

So, almost all the displays have associated signage . . . it was only after a few hours there that it occurred to me that it would be smart to snap a photo of the signage before taking a photo of the display. I tried to go back and get as many as I could, but more than half the photos turned out blurry (I was shooting around people and was in a hurry).

I’ll provide the signs when I have them . . . like for these next shots.

I have multiple shots of this guy because I trying to get a decent shot, and I couldn’t tell if I did.

A few of these guys, as well (I don’t think a girl could be that ugly, so it must be a guys).

But, back to the first guy . . .

Another interesting display was that of the squids . . .

OK, in this next video, the red things in some of the squid’s mouths are fish . . . during the video, one squid spits out the remains of a fish it had been eating. I apologize for the poor quality. It was difficult minding the screen and the people around me and I didn’t notice I was too close for the automatic focus function to work properly.

Still, I think you can easily make out the action.

It was probably just a trick of the light, but it sure looked like they were focusing on me . . . watching me as I watched them.

Here’s another signage . . .

I think the Sailfin is first, and then the Grunt . . . maybe.

Here’s proof not everything in Japan is small . . .

Here’s an example of a badly shot signage. I believe the problem wasn’t only that I was hurrying, but that there’s a shutter lag in both the P900 and the Note 8 (and most phones), and I was moving too soon after I pressed the shutter . . .

The actual shrimp isn’t much better, and yes, I’ve learned not to rush . . . mostly.

Let me add two more shots; Southern California steelhead salmon . . .

I’m not adding as much information as I might typically do because 1) interested parties can easily find any information they require, and 2) I know few people actually follow links I provide, and finally 3) I’m saddled with more stuff than usual and don’t have the time to chase down the information and link it here.

Still, I think I have enough to satisfy most people.

Anyway, that’s it for this post. The full gallery is HERE, and the slideshow is below.

Slideshow for the Long Beach 2019 – The Aquarium of the Pacific Part 1 Gallery — 70 photos

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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