As part of my visit to Knoxville, we went to the Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg today. I really enjoy aquariums, and this one just opened up a year or two ago, so I was excited about seeing it. On the whole, it’s a nice aquarium. Not as nice as the National Aquarium in Baltimore, but better than some of the smaller aquariums around. It was quite educational, but all of the interactive exhibits were clustered together, and I thought they were kindof weak. I was most surprised by the fact that the aquarium is privately owned and operated by Ripley’s (of Believe It or Not Fame); given that the aquarium’s primary purpose is commercial, the educational content was excellent.

Anyway, this is a lookdown fish which is in a cyllindrical tank just inside the entrance to the aquarium. (That’s why you can see all of those people on the other side.) It was one of the first shots I took all day and probably the best. Aquarium fish are tricky to photograph. You don’t want to use a flash because it bounces off the glass, but the fish are usually moving so quickly that capturing them without a flash is tricky. As always a tripod would have been helpful. I saw one that folds up really small at the Cornell Store the other day; unfortunately, it didn’t have a price tag.