The fishtank at the restaurant was so alluring: backlit water, acid-green and thick with noise, and the bright red-orange fat little fluffy-finned goldfishes, still as rocks but for an occasional pan of the eye.

Of course I wanted to photograph this.

Of course the moment I approached the tank the fish darted back into the murk. Impossible to photograph!  Flash was out of the question, poor things, but without it they were ghosts, "is something there?" lurking behind the thick water.

And of course the brilliant green of the water is a trick of the light at a distance; up close it's not the same.

Still, the fish were so beautiful, their fan tails fanning, their fins, like scarves, unfurling so delicately.

Eventually, they came forward. A bit. But they were still skittish.

So this is what I got.