The Blue Planet in Copenhagen

If you are in Copenhagen you might want to visit The Blue Planet - Northern Europes largest aquarium.

Bring your camera! You get to see beautiful, strange, weird and funny animals. You can read more at 

National Aquarium Denmark

If you can read Danish, you can download their app for your iPhone or iPad at https://itunes.apple.com/se/app/den-bla-planet/id616898584?mt=8 

It is a challenge to get good iPhone pictures through the aquarium glass. I found out that the iPhone 4S has difficulties focusing on smaller animals when there is a lot going on in the background. This picture shows that:

Why the long face? - iPhone 4s, as shot

I tried to get the eye in focus but was not able to even after several attempts. Kind of annoying, the roots confused the iPhone. I would like to have a smaller focus rectangle so I really could pinpoint the focus, I thinks it's the large focus area that makes it so hard to focus on small details in the image.

In retrospect, I could have locked the focus on something the correct distance away and then moved the iPhone to get the eye in focus. Didn't think of that when I was there though. Aha! Camera+ would have worked great for that since I could have controlled focus and exposure independently!

Trying to photograph sea horses with flash proved difficult as well:

Sea horses - iPhone 4s, flash

Turning off the flash gave this:

Sea horses - iPhone 4s, no flash

You can see quite a bit of distortion because of the glass, especially in the lower left corner. But if you put the difficulty of taking pictures aside, the visit is still worth it. You get to see many interesting creatures. The walk in the glass tunnel through the large tank is really something!

But the fish and chips in the restaurant were not:

Tasteless meal - iPhone 4s

The plate, or stone slab, was the best thing about the meal. There was a hair in my dip so I had to get a new one, of course that can happen anywhere but still.... The fish was quite tasteless, (hey guys ever heard of salt and pepper?) the chips ok but a little cold and for 115 Danish crowns the whole meal was a disappointment. You can bring your own food if you like, there is a separate area with chairs and tables for those who bring their own meal. I recommend that, or that you plan to eat somewhere else.

There is an area with open aquariums where you're allowed to touch and hold any of the animals in them - fishes, crabs, sea stars... Be prepared, the water is really cold! Then there are the piranhas, the sea lions, and many more!

You can buy tickets online at www.denblaaplanet.dk/en/