Aquarium photography sounds simple until you try it: you're shooting through glass, in low light, at subjects that don't hold still and don't take direction. I spent an afternoon at OdySea in Scottsdale finding out exactly how many of my usual instincts don't apply once there's a tank wall between me and the fish.

The jellyfish were the easiest win of the day, by a wide margin. Whatever lighting the tank was using threw the water a deep, saturated blue, which meant the orange and rust-colored jellyfish practically glowed against it, pure complementary colors doing half the composition work for me. They also barely move with any speed, drifting rather than swimming, which meant I actually had time to focus and frame instead of firing blind and hoping.