Mark Your Calendars for the Upcoming Frogs of the World Workshop

On Saturday, April 30, 2016 I will be hosting my second Frogs of the World Workshop at Reptilia commencing at 8:00 a.m. sharp. The cost of the workshop will be $85, which includes admission to the Reptilia Zoo. We will photograph 5 species of frogs for the first 2 hours, before entering the zoo to photograph many species of snakes (both venomous and constrictors), alligators, and lizards. Generally  two to three hours provides ample time to photograph the reptiles located in the zoo portion, but we do have the remainder of the day available to spend in the zoo. This workshop will be limited to a maximum of 10 people, so do not delay if you are sitting on the fence. Payment for this workshop can be made via email transfer or by cheque. Please contact me at info@andrewmclachlan.ca if you are interested in this workshop and for further info on making your payment.

To photograph the frogs it is best to use a 100mm macro lens and off camera flash, preferably a flash bracket that will allow you to position the flash out over the lens will yield the best results. I have two spare off-camera macro flash brackets that folks can borrow for the day should they be in need of such a bracket. The room in which we photograph the frogs does have a tendency to get rather warm so you may wish to wear light clothing. To photograph the reptiles in the zoo afterwards generally a lens in the 200-300mm range will work well. Tripods have a tendency to become an excercise in frustration when photographing reptiles and amphibians, which is why I recommend using off camera flash and handholding so that you will have the mobility to capture these quick-moving subjects.

For this session we will photograph the following species of frogs:

• Tomato Frog
• Budgett’s Frog
• Vietnamese Moss Frog
• Green Tree Frog
• Red-eyed Tree Frog

I am looking forward to meeting some new folks at this workshop. I will be featuring some images by past participants in a day or so. I had hoped to do so by now but unfortunately was hit with a brutal ice storm last Thursday that left me without hydro for 48 hours and devastating damage to almost every tree on my half acre rural lot, but fortunately only minor damage to my home’s eaves trough even though several large branches came down on my roof….funny thing is I was at a Chinese food restaurant on Thursday and my fortune cookie said “Good news is on the way” 🙂

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The Kiss of Death

This capture of a yawning Black Mamba was created during my Frogs of the World Workshop as we visited the Reptilia Zoo after we had completed the frog photography portion of the workshop.

The Black Mamba is the deadly snake in Africa,  with venom potent enough to kill a human in as little 30 minutes. A bite from the Black Mamba is known as the “Kiss of Death”.

To create this image I positioned my 105mm Micro lens with rubber lens hood (to protect the glass enclosure from scratches) up against the glass enclosure and using a setting ISO 100, f16 @ 1/60 sec with my Nikon SB400 Speelight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket. As the snake began to yawn I created several frames to capture the mouth fully open.

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Bullfrog Dreamin’

Bullfrog in Wetland, Horseshoe Lake, Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada
Nikon D800, Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 31mm
ISO 800, f18 @ 1/100 second
Nikon Polarizing Filter

The recent warm weather that we have been experiencing this week has already got me dreaming of the new Bullfrog images that I will be creating in the wetland on Hosreshoe Lake, near Parry Sound, Ontario. While there are numerous locations throughout the province of Ontario that could easily be named as my favorite places, I do feel most at home on Horseshoe Lake. Of all the Bullfrog images that I create each year in the wetland on the lake, this image that was created last summer is by far my personal favorite. This coming year I am looking forward to trying new things with my frog work, which will include video clips. I am all set with LED lighting and microphones for night-time forays into wetlands. I am also intrigued by a new camera concept / design by LIGHT and hope to be able to give this new camera technology a whirl with the Bullfrogs of Horseshoe Lake.

To create the frog-scape image above I simply positioned my canoe alongside of this large male Bullfrog, sat in the bottom of the canoe for greater stability, and using the Live View feature on my Nikon D800, I reached out over the side of the canoe, placing the camera low to the surface of the water to create an image whereby the frog dominates the foreground yet the habitat in which the frog lives is quite apparent.

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Red-eyed Tree Frog Steals the Show

Red-eyed Tree Frog on Bromeliad Blossom
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 100
f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

Saturday March 5th was the day of my first ever captive frog photography workshop. I will be announcing a second workshop in the coming weeks. Do contact me if interested to have your name added to the short list. We had three participants for this inaugural workshop and after some initial instruction on the use of a macro flash bracket and flash positioning they were off and running, creating fabulous images. I will share some of their images here on the blog once they are able to process and send me some low-res image files. Without a doubt, the ever-popular Red-eyed Tree Frogs stole the show. Tree frogs have a way of doing that with their fabulous expressions and long-gangly legs making for great poses. Here are a few images that I created in between assisting the workshop participants. I also created a mini-pond for some aquatic set-ups with the Tomato Frog and Budgett’s Frog and a large piece of lichen covered tree bark was used to compliment the Vietnamese Moss Frog’s superior camouflaged coloration. A BIG thanks also to the amazing staff at Reptilia Zoo for all their superb assistance during the entire workshop. Since the workshop also included the cost of admission to the zoo, we were able to spend several hours photographing some of the highly venomous and lethal snakes in their enclosures, such as the Black Mamba and King Cobra. Stay tuned for those images in a future blog post.

 

Red-eyed Tree Frog on Bromeliad Blossom
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

 

Red-eyed Tree Frog on Bromeliad Blossom
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

 

Budgett’s Frog Emerging From the Water
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

 

Tomato Frog on Rock in Mini-pond
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

 

Vietnamese Moss Frog on Lichen Covered Tree Bark
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

 

Vietnamese Moss Frog on Lichen Covered Tree Bark
Nikon D800, Nikon 105mm Micro Lens
ISO 1 , f22 @ 1/60 sec
Nikon SB400 Speedlight on a Wimberley F-2 Macro Bracket

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