The last listing for the Shedd was a bit long so thought I would start another one. Although I've been there since then it was the 2006 trip that was so much fun. That was because I was sharing it with a lot of other goofy cichlidiots that day, our day tour from the ACA. I had to shoot the show too and that reminded me of some pretty nice fish too. But I remember... The night before, in the hospitality room...
The ride to the Shedd
Finally getting there
This old sea turtle. I think that they said this was the oldest thing in the Shedd still.
And while on turtles see the alligator snapping turtle and it's "lure" the worm in it's mouth
They had a new exhibit that this chameleon was in, I think it's a panther chameleon.
Then there was the behind the scenes tour
Look out one of the keyholes in the building you could see the lakefront in all of it's glory.
It was right about then that I got a call from home saying that a storm in St. Louis had knocked out all of the power and it probably wouldn't be back on for days. I knew that as soon as the banquet was over or at least very early the next morning I would be heading back to clean 150+ sponge filters before they soured. Ninety-eight degrees in St. Louis with no air, now that's living. Fortunately not many fatalities except for my back from cleaning all of those filters!
And of course they also had some nice tropical salt tanks too. One of the neatest things I got to do was dive the Great Barrier Reef and spent several minutes teasing/playing with the clownfish. They would come out and attack my hand because they had eggs underneath the anemone. Finally they dived into the anemone and dared me to be stupid and stick my hand in to get stung, but I wasn't buying.
But there were still a lot of interesting fish to see like this cardinal fish.
and lionfish
But then it was on to shoot the real fish at the show
One of my favorites and I keep telling Ron that one of these days one of his pearsi are just going to vanish from the show!
And this bitty fish I think took third but I was so smitten with it I reminded Dan Yee (hope that's spelled right) that her fish was extremely beautiful and would win soon. I think she took BOS with it a year or two later.
And who took best of show and who's fish was it? Naturally, The Fish Whisperer, Ron Georgeone.
Yeah, he's whipped all of you competitors like a red-headed step child, year in and year out. Someone should install some hidden cameras in his fishroom to see how he really does it so consistantly!
But the real purpose of this long story is to remind you that the ACA is coming around again, and it's in INDY this year, just a hop skip and a jump away. I'll be there again to shoot the winners. Will any of them be from this club or have you guys just given up and let Ron win :-) ? I hope not and I hope you'll go to the website and get registered.
http://www.aca2012indy.com/wordpress/ Don't forget to make the room reservation, you can always cancel but if you wait too long you'll end up at an off-site hotel and that's just not as much fun. It was actually warm in St. Louis today so spring/summer/ACA convention can't be too far off. Hope to see you there!
Gary Lange
