Porgy and Snapper

This photo was captured with a Sony a6300. 

Save the Turtles

The South Carolina Aquarium has added a Sea Turtle Care Center, which is a working exhibit designed to aid sick and injured sea turtles, ultimately returning them to the ocean once they're healthy. They even have sea turtle ambulances that are dispatched to recover injured turtles quickly for the help they require at the Care Center. 

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.

Jellyfish on a Wall

This jellyfish lives in an aquarium at the SC Riverbanks Zoo. I wish I had taken a photo of the name plaque so I could tell you what type of jellyfish it was because it seemed to be a little less common than the ones you normally see at aquariums. After a little bit of research, it might be a Cassiopea Andromeda. If you're reading this and you know the name of this little guy, let me know in the comments and I'll update this post!

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.

Nautilus — Living Dinosaur

People often call the Nautilus a living dinosaur but they're wrong. The Nautilus is 500 million years old. Dinosaurs didn't roam this earth until 230 million years ago.

The Nautilus lives thousands of feet deep in the ocean waters of Andaman, Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef. In scientific studies, the Nautilus has proven to have both short-term and long-term memory when exposed to Pavlov-style tests using lights and food. 

This Nautilus lives at the Riverbanks Zoo. When my Wild Kratt's-loving son saw it, he nearly lost his mind he was so excited! He announced to everybody within 100 feet that it was older than dinosaurs. 

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300. 

Aquarium Excitement

Columbia's Riverbanks Zoo & Garden is a perfectly-sized zoo. Everything has been modernized and they have a really diverse array of animals. They even have an aquarium, stocked with sharks, moray eels and other saltwater favorites.

When you're armed with a camera, it's sometimes hard to take a step back and see the action through others' eyes. But if you do, and the heavens align, something special happens. The little girl pressed up against the glass is my daughter and I managed to capture her excitement just as all of the other kids stepped back into the shadows.  

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.

Lost at Sea with a Barracuda

Barracuda are one of the toughest-looking fish in the sea. Whenever I see one, it takes me back to a little snorkeling adventure we took at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park when I was about twelve years-old.

The swells quite large and I was one of the only people on the boat who didn't get sick. While everybody else was rocking up and down on the boat, I jumped into the water for a snorkel.

A barracuda that was nearly as long as me caught my attention and I started following it. We swam for a few minutes pretty quickly and rounded a huge piece of coral. Just as we made it around the bend, we came upon a half a dozen or so barracuda. Most were smaller than the big guy I was following and I had a moment when I thought it was pretty cool to see his family.

Just then, a really big swell came through and I dropped straight down toward the family of fish. At the bottom of the swell, I could have reached out and touched them. It seemed like an eternity before the other side of the swell came through and I was lifted back up to a more comfortable distance. At that point, I had a little freak-out moment and popped my head out of the water to see how far I had swum. Our boat was about 200 yards away, which felt like miles. I began swimming as fast as I could to get back to our boat.

When I was halfway there, I realized the boat I was swimming to was a giant catamaran and our group definitely did not set sail on a catamaran. I looked around again and realized I was swimming to the wrong boat, in the wrong direction. Our boat seemed to be a little dot on the horizon. I had this sudden fear that our boat might leave without me so I swam the distance as fast as I could. When I arrived at the boat, nobody even realized I had wandered off. I didn't say a word. I just climbed back into the boat with a very deep appreciation and respect for the vastness of the ocean. 

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.

Abstract Stingray

The South Carolina Aquarium is a great place to take the kids and escape the heat for a couple of hours. It's got enough of the big exhibits and giant tanks to wow the young and old alike but it is super easy to get to and can be done in an hour or two without feeling like you're rushing through all of the exhibits. Don't get me wrong, you could spend all day there but if you're looking for a quick educational getaway for the kids, it checks off all of the boxes there, too. 

Also, they've got Lemurs! 

This photograph was captured with a Sony a6300.