Freds favorite photos

I thought it might be intresting for some of you to get a quick
guide to some of the photos in the gallery that I feel have
turned out interesting and for that reason better than others.
This is the result of my firsts year of cichlidfotography.
As with many other things it just gets more intresting to work
with it the more I get into it. I am just finding out how
important it is to have contact with the fish that you are
shooting. It is just like in human portrait photography
very important to establish some kind of trust between the
photographer and the object/model.
Cichlids are very curious animals and sometimes it even
seems like they enjoy beeing watched. That is of course a very
good thing for all of us who like to keep them in glass-tanks
in the livingroom.

Geophagus sp. Tapajo "Orange Head"

I am the proud owner of an absolutely beautifl wild caught Geopagus sp. Tapajo "Orange Head". He is quite shy and I have wanted to shoot some photos of him for quite some time but have been waiting to see if he would get any braver. Finally he did seem a little bit better and I started to shoot him. It has taken me several days to reach a result that gives him justice and this picture I think finally does. It's real hard to shoot fish that you know can be so great looking. You can wait forever before they look just right. In this photo the last tip of the dorsal fins goes out in three beatiful points and all fins are just right.

Cyphotilapia frontosa

The Cyphotilapia frontosa is a fascinating cichlid and quite easy
to photograph. After sitting totally still for a while infront of the
tank they usually come close to check you out. This one from
Mpimbwe and I had a long nice session.

The lip of the Discus

This is a photo I like because of the three discus lining up
with their red eyes visable giving nice depth to the image.
I like working with a very short depth of field thus leaving
the majority of the image out of focus. It makes the viewers
eyes concentrate on a sertain point. Here you can also clearly
see that there is a nice contact with the closest one. Discus
have very expessive lips.

The scales of the T. moorii

The colours of the scales in Tropheus moorii are just
incredible. They are always different and heavily used for signals
among the group. Theese "Chaitika" had wonderful bright red scales
that gave them an almost "lobster-like" look. It's nice to see how
safe they feel as a group pushing close togeather feeling the
bodys of the others.

The face of the elastodema

A nice close encouter with a wild caught Melanochromis
elastodema. Another nice example of contact between
photographer and model.

Creating shapes, shaping an image

This is an image that I like alot. Sometimes the position of the
fish just by coisidence turn into something expressive. Like
this seemingly eyeless, white-liped duboisi coming out of the
darkness and the horizontal N. boulengeri closing of the image
in the lower right corner.

The eye of the eye-biter.

The lake Malawi predator Dimidiochromis compressiceps is a
very visually powerfull cichlid. The famous "eye biter". He looks
a bit like an egyptian king with his little beard. He has a
very intense way of staring at you. It scares me sometimes. As
soon as I have more space I will build a gigantic tank to keep this
bautiful cichlid.

Posing

This Aquidens rivulatus was actually posing for me. He livs in a
shop and is very used to having people all around him. As I
moved closer with the lens he came up to the glass to show
himself, nicely turning from side to side as if making sure I could
see every scale on his large body.

Kala island

Here is another example of how Tropheus stay close togeather
when they are worried. Theese are from my own group of wild caught
Kala island. In this image the two top fishes seem to be
exact reflections of each other.

Photo: Fredrik Hagblom. May not be used without permission.