How did you get them to pose so nicely?

Well, they normally lay on the bottom of the pond on their sides, but I just
call them up and ask 'm to sit still ;-)

Nah, all kidding aside, I just take hundreds of pics, digital is cheap, and
then select the better looking ones. Trust me, I have many pictures of
blurs :-)

It's a little side project, I try to take a few pics at least every 2 weeks,
and they all get saved per year/month/day on my PC. Makes it easy to
compare seasons, early springs, fish size etc.

I like the photo
of the mishap too - a great reminder for all of us.

Yup, I was lucky that this happened when the ponds weren't connected yet
! Still, when I came out and saw that, I had to fight the tears.
It also revealed a flaw in my thinking: "if I hang the pump halfway, the
pond can never be completely emptied". Not true as I found out, the water
running back under the liner pushes it up, so more water to pump, goes under
liner, so liner goes up... it was *completely* dry on top.

Theo