Night at Oceanographic

We wanted to go to beach afternoon of the first day so we could not visit Oceanographic during day. It was not possible to go around buildings like you could with all other buildings in the area so we could see only entrance and tops of some buildings.

But we found a flyer about a night dolphin show at hotel. We decided to go and we returned at about 9pm. The next show was due at 10.45pm so we had plenty of time to explore nicely lit buildings and their inhabitants.

We could not find penguins and sharks in time and while dolphins were wonderful we could not get any good photos due to darkness (D200 is not as good for night shots of living missiles as I would like it to be) and sitting in the corner (the place was crowded). That can mean only one thing - we need to return tomorrow.

Oceanographic during daylight

I did not intend to take many photos of architecture during day. I thought they cannot beat those from yesterday evening, but I still took some.

It was much warmer than previous night (obviously) and all seals were hidden. On the other hand water birds were present. Or maybe we did not see them yesterday in the darkness.

White wire ball is aviary. It is interesting idea, providing enough of space for poor creatures.

Dolphins!

We arrived to dolphinarium 40 minutes ahead of the show like the information tables suggested. After Zuzka insisting we sat to the 1st row directly at place where we have seen dolphins to get out of water yesterday. It was very good position, I have learned eventually.

With lot of time to spare we were watching water with occasional dolphin enjoying their free time. And preparing their audience for the show. All following photos were taken during that time.

That's life! Just relax on your back and fish will be thrown into your (what are dolphins using for eating?).

And then it started. We have seen something similar yesterday and still it was amazing to watch these wonderful creatures. I really wonder how they can learn those things (I mean, I know they are intelligent, but how people explain what they want dolphins to do). During the show Zuzka realized she probably picked incorrect career :-)

The last instructions and everybody is ready to go.

At my signal unleash dolphins.

Where's the fish?

It is unbelievable how high they can "jump". Or to throw a person. We have learned dolphins are quite convenient transport. You can ride them as a surf, they can eject you from water or they can just help you to get out of water.

On the other hand they are quite hard to take photos of. It is easy to miss place where they are going to jump (we learned this hard way in New Zealand couple of months ago). And if you manage you point your camera at correct place (which is not as hard as I want you to believe) then you need to get your zoom level right. I have too many photos with nice jumping dolphins, but person they ejected is just feet at the top of picture.

I really hate surroundings of Oceanography. I wonder if they did not realize people will get ugly and busy background in their photos. Or it was expected everybody will use f1.2 :-)
    

How can they touch something so high? I don't get it.

Other water creatures

From all other expositions I liked most a big Red Sea aquarium, little one with Nemo and the glass tunnels where fish were around you. They were amazing.

I would not mind having such a screen at home...

It was quite dark down there. Quickly moving shark and white whale were impossible to get sharp, but I kind of like these. They are the worst photos I have shown here. They are not sharp and I did not bother removing noise. And who knows? I might get some photo of Loch Ness Monster or UFO next time :-)