Fish eye #3 Small zander

A small zander from a turbid winter canal.

I had originally said I intended to hold off on writing anything in these fish eye posts, but straight away I find myself unable to keep to my own rules and it's all this little zander's fault!

What can I say apart from I was really surprised by this picture. So often already when out on the bank I struggle to obtain the right angle of light in order to illuminate the fishes eye sufficiently so a macro shot can be taken. Then when I download the plethora of pictures I have taken and begin searching through them all I find one solitary gem where the light and camera have worked perfectly together to reveal something I never knew.

The zander, of all the fish I wanted to photograph, I suspected would have probably the most boring of eyes. Turns out that if you catch them in right light they are not as dull as I have always assumed. Both the eye and the paler areas of skin of the zander seem to have an almost iridescent hue in bright sunlight, which in low light or darkness would probably never appear. Given that the two aforementioned conditions are the time most associated with zander captures might be a clue as to why I for one had never noticed it before. The one last thing feel I must mention about this picture that intrigues me is the light flecks that can been seen on right hand side of the iris. Oddly though I think it is just simply minute particles of god only knows what on the clear outer eye, but I suspect that the reason they are only visible on one side of the iris that they are actually being illuminated from behind by light reflecting off the tapetum layer at the back of the eye, much as a cats eye reflects your cars headlights at night. 

Fish eye #2 small perch

Juvenile perch from a heavily coloured commercial pool in winter.

Fish eye #1 Roach

A short while ago I was showing my good friend Rob some pictures using a memory stick in combination with our flat screen TV in the lounge. Whilst doing so I came across a picture of a tench eye we took a few years ago. I think it would be truthful that even though it was a little out of focus seeing this close up shot three feet wide really took us both back. The subtleties I could see in that close up were stunning and really made me realise that quite often we hold these amazingly beautiful things in our hands and don't take or have time to look closely enough to appreciated them. It instantly inclined me to think about taking some more of these shots and with a little encouragement form Rob I have decided to try and capture more of these images as I fish through the year and to post them onto this blog as a as a side project under the title of Fish eye, They won't appear with any regularity knowing me, so this way should anyone want to see them they can track them down by title without having to read any other blogs separating them. I don't really want to detract from any of the pictures I post by blabbering on, so the most I will write is the sort of location or conditions the fish came from and their age or size, as I think these points are important and may go some way to helping show the differences in the same species from different environments. 

10oz roach from a clear farm pond caught in winter.