pattack
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken in my wildlife friendly garden which has a wildlife pond.Time
It was lateish afternoon when i took this - you can see the sun is quite low on the horizon ;)Lighting
There was enough natural light to use the settings of - f6.3 : ISO320 : 1/250sec. The sun had moved away from the pond area and so the light was soft rather than harsh.Equipment
Sony A77 and my Tamron 90mm Macro lens. No tripod as I was lying flat resting my elbows on the ground!Inspiration
I love common frogs - I think they're great subjects because of the possibilities with those large eyes! There's also a wide variation of colour and pattern within the species. If you're very careful you can get quite close to them.Editing
I shot in RAW and used the basic tools at that stage and saved as a TIFF. In Photoshop I cropped, used curves, "cleaned up", dodged and burned and sharpened using an action that I created for the job. This method is a lot less harsh than just using the usual 'sharpening' command.In my camera bag
I carry my Sony A77, Tamron 90mm macro, my beloved old Minolta 300mm f4 prime and my Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 plus speedlight, diffusers, gorilla pod, shutter release cable, tubes, spare battery and card. all the usual but when I'm out and about walking places I will travel as lightly as possible.Feedback
Be patient! For these sort of shots I lie down on the ground, with my camera already more or less in position, a few metres from the pond. Then I spend quite some time slowly inching forward, commando style. When I'm near enough for a fairly close shot I take an image. Then I continue to push my luck getting closer and taking images sporadically. This ensures I get something for my effort and also helps the frog accept the sound of the camera. When I'm happy with what I have I usually have difficulty getting up again.... :D