From landscape to aquascape

[George Farmer]

In vain attempts to learn from the master, Mr Amano, I like trying to translate nature's beauty into my own aquascapes.

So with this in mind here's a few of my favourite shots from a recent trip to Snowdonia, Wales, UK. It is a beautiful part of the world and one day I hope to do the scenery more justice when I eventually buy my DSLR (350D).

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/204/01rd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/7898/02nu3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/2461/03wp0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/4950/04uz5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/254/05zv0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/6065/06xe5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And here is my latest aquascape, inspired from the above trip as well as Justin Law's "Breeze of Wild" aquascape that came 2nd in the AGA 2005 contest.

It's my first attempt with a nano aquarium (12x8x8" - <3 gal.) and first time using stones (iwagumi) too.

Photo taken using aquarium lighting and I also have a cold-cathode lamp behind the tank for the back lighting effect.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/5723/3novtf4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Please excuse the awful reflection!

This photo was taken just 9 days after initial planting (lots CO2!!)

I'm currently having minor algae issues due to recent neglect but have a few Amano shrimp on the case.

All photos taken using Olympus D-435 5.1MP compact. No adjustment to settings, just point & shoot!!

Comments welcome. Thanks for looking.

[CDM]

Amazing details coming from a P&S camera. Very impressive job done by Olympus. The aquascape is just started, I need imagination to figure how it will look like as it fill up the tank, and I believe it will look great in the future. I have a personal opinion, I would prefer the substrate to have uphill/downhill and make it looks more like the landscape. Thanks for sharing.

[George Farmer]

Thanks for your feedback Yuchia.

My Olympus is a neat little camera and a bargain at only £70 (NT$ 4000).

I agree with your comment on the substrate, in hindsight (it's such a wonderful thing!) I should have sloped it more from front to rear.

And of course you are right in that the layout needs time to evolve. Presently the hairgrass is too uniform in the horizon so I intend to move it around a bit, in front of the main stone etc. to create a more natural look.

At the moment I'm combatting some algae issues due to neglect over the last few days. Small volumes of water are very unforgiving!

I hope to share some better photos with you soon, both from a compositional and technical viewpoint.

Thanks again.

[CDM]

You are very welcome, George. Thank you too. Because it's more interesting to see how a planted tank evoloving since started than watch the final result. To me the result is just a "WOW". I would like to learn more about the process than the result. Please keep us updated.

[alanhill]

I love the views of Snowdonia - particularly the first.
On the other hand, I'm afraid that I don't quite get the Amano thing: I think they are little underwater gardens, which are very pretty and fine in themselves - but I can't see any real relationships with natural aquatic environments.
I look after several 12x8x8" tanks which are not pretty at all and I admire your results so far, I expect the tank will look very fine when the plants mature - I guess that will reduce the effect of the backlighting and solve most of your reflection problem too.

Alan

[George Farmer]

Thanks again Yuchia. You can see the development of this aquarium from scratch - http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/31643-3-gal-basic-iwagumi.html

Thanks Alan. Your point about "underwater gardens" is very true and I entirely agree that they do not represent anything like a natural aquatic environment. This is the intention in many Nature Aquarium aquascapes. It is not to everyone's taste I admit. Such is life.

Here's a sample from one of my recent articles that may interest you -

It may cause some surprise that the aim of a Nature Aquarium is not to recreate the biotope of a specific region (although this is possible). The main goal is in fact to create a kind of underwater landscape or an imaginary fantasy scene. If you study many of Amano’s and other Nature style aquascapes you will soon get the idea. Scenes that physically replicate a realistic underwater environment can be created but generally speaking they do not provide the same degree of aesthetic appeal to the aquascaper as an underwater landscape. I believe the reason for this lays in our own perception of what appears to most represent nature. Being a land-based species we humans are familiar with landscapes, certainly more so than underwater scenes and the Nature Aquarium uses this relative attractiveness to its advantage.