See the flamboyant grandeur of the common betta fish

For as long as he can remember, Visarute Angkatavanich has been fascinated by fish. At age seven he took up photography, first with a disposable Kodak camera and later with his father’s Nikon FM. But it wasn’t until he became a dad and started spending more time at his home in Bangkok that he merged the two passions. 

Angkatavanich studied the traits of Siamese fighting fish, also known by the apt scientific name Betta splendens, and how to care for them responsibly.

(Betta fish are often mistreated. Here’s what to know if you’re considering having them as pets.)

Then he procured some from a pet store in the city’s Chatuchak Market and began photographing them, experimenting with different enclosures and lighting. “I can’t ask the fish to act like people,” he says, so he learned to coax them into various positions by changing the size and shape of the tanks. 

A tall tank, for instance, encourages a betta to dive down dramatically. Angkatavanich, who’s now been focusing on fish for years, has a pretty good idea of what to expect next. But capturing the magic moment is still a challenge. He has to “press the shutter and hope for a miracle.”

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Angkatavanich understands the appeal of photographing creatures in far-flung places, such as birds in the Amazon rainforest. But he finds inspiration in his own home where, in the right light, the fish look like “moving color” in the frame of a painting, he says. Best of all, his subjects become part of his family.