Sorry - I've been lazy about posting recently. I've found that that tends to happen frequently when I have a batch of photos that I like but that all have a flaw of some sort.

This current batch was taken about a month ago at Beechwood Farms. This year, Anya has taken a shining to bird watching - we have about a hundred bird feeders in the back yard, we have several bird identification books and CDs, and we took a trip to Beechwood Farms as it is the local headquarters for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

On the grounds was a small pond. It was covered in duckweed, and absolutely swarming with frogs.

And then, through the duckweed, I spotted this guy...

Now, before I get into details, let me explain a few things. First, I decided to travel light this day. I only took my Canon EOS 7D with the Tamron 70-300mm lens attached. While that lens is a nice (and inexpensive) lens, it doesn't have any kind of image stabilization, so working at the 300mm range is tough without a tripod.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro1:2 at 238mm, 1/32 at f/11.3. ISO. No post production. Beechwood Farms, Fox Chapel, PA.

Why This Photo: I had been snapping shots of the frogs for some time when I noticed this pair. The tension in the situation was palpable. You knew both were watching the other and waiting to see what would happen. I tried to capture that tension as well as the stealth of the snake's approach.

What Works: The composition is ok, but I was working with what I had at hand. I couldn't really reposition or remove any distracting elements. At first, if you're not sure what you're looking at, the snake is almost invisible. The focus is pretty sharp on the frog, despite being handheld at a fairly long focal distance.

What Doesn't Work: Though the composition was ok, it is also somewhat lacking. The frog facing out of the frame is somewhat distracting, and there are a great number of distracting elements. Also, the depth of field prevented sharp focus on both the frog and the snake at the same time - this shot was the compromise.

Like I said, I really like this set of photos, but there seems to always be at least one thing wrong with each shot.

I may continue to be a bit of a slacker with the posts for a little bit here. Tomorrow I start a photography class at CCAC. I signed up with a friend mainly as a way to start getting some real training. Since I've self-taught all the way up to now, I figured some real training to confirm some of the stuff I've picked up would be a good idea. After this class, I think I'll probably try to find another, and then another, and ... well, you get the picture (yeah - pun intended again!).

- Bill

So today's shot is a different perspective.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/25 sec at f/3.5. ISO 400. No post production.

What Works: I really like the composition of this shot. It is a different view from most frog photos. Also, the background with the green gradient to black is very pleasing (much more so than the blue to purple that yesterday's shot has).

What Doesn't Work: The focus is a bit off, and the catch-light again is a bit annoying with how obvious it is about it being the fluorescent lights from the tank. And also like yesterday's photo, the depth of field could have been a bit deeper to get more of the frog in focus. Perhaps I should have focused on the foot and those cool sticky finger pads instead?

- Bill

So I don't know if I've mentioned it here before or not, but for a couple years, I owned my own pet store. I previously had been an avid aquarium hobbyist, keeping multiple fish tanks and terrariums with different species of lizards, newts, and my particular favorite - frogs. While owning the store, I had access to a lot more species of frogs, and I managed to secure some Vietnamese Mossy Frogs (Theloderma corticale).

Unfortunately, I've recently lost one of these frogs. After growing the frogs out from very young froglets (yes, that's a term!), I figured out I only had males. Each night, they call and call to no avail. And every once in a while, they decide to try mating anyway, and quite often result in drowning one of the frogs. It really is extremely unfortunate, and I wish I could get my hands on some female frogs, but after discussing it repeatedly with probably the top breeder - Patrick Nabors - it seems captive breeding produces more males than females, and thus females are pretty hard to come by.

Anyway - they're quite good photo subjects:

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/20 sec at f/3.5. ISO 400. No post production.

Why This Photo: I don't remember exactly why I took this photo, I was either messing around with the macro lens, or just taking photos for the sake of taking photos.

What Works: The focus is tack sharp right on the frog's eyes - revealing a good look at the beautiful irises. It also does a good job of capturing the texture of the skin on these masters of camouflage.

What Doesn't Work: The depth of field is a bit too shallow. The fact that the background is blurred is nice, but it probably would be better if the nose of the frog was in focus as well. The catch-light in the eyes of the frog are nice, but the fact that you can plainly see that they are two fluorescent lights is kind of distracting.

What do you think? These are cool frogs, and recently, I purchased another photo book to add to my collection. This one is called Frogs: And Other Amphibians (though I got mine much cheaper at Half Price Books) by Paul Starosta (apparently his whole site is in French, so good luck).

The new book has me thinking about getting more frogs, but for now, I figured I'd share some photos of the ones I have.

- Bill

PS: I made another kayaking video this weekend too. Enjoy...

I stumbled upon this green frog (Lithobates clamitans) while hiking along in Linn Run State Park. I was actually hiking along the stream bed and had startled a couple of these frogs into hiding before I refined my technique to more carefully approach the frogs to get close enough to get some close-ups.

I was shooting handheld that day, and at this point was standing in about a foot of water and was holding the camera level with the surface of the water about six inches above the water, so I was not able to look through the viewfinder. Every once in a while, I intentionally shoot without using the viewfinder just try different angles and perspectives.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/60 sec at f/4.5. ISO 400. No post production. Linn Run State Park, Rector, PA.

Why This Photo: This frog actually had some defect with its right eye - almost like a cataract - that made it cloudy and white. After a couple other shots, I decided to eliminate the problematic eye and try for this shot with only the good eye. It took a few shots to get the framing right without using the viewfinder, but eventually I came up with this.

What Works: The framing of this shot seems to work just right for me. The eye of the frog rests on one of the vertical thirds of the shot, and the green along its face produces a nice diagonal that draws the viewer's eye into the photo. Also pleasing is the shallow depth of field and the area of focus right at the frog's eye.

What Doesn't Work: If I could have used a tripod and managed a longer shutter speed, then a smaller aperture for more depth of field may have made for a nicer photo by showing off more of the texture of the frog's skin.

I have submitted this photo to the Photographic Section's Digital Projected Image Competition in 2010 as well as the George W. Glennie Memorial Nature Salon 2010.

I really do need to get out on some more photo excursions soon.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this photo.

- Bill