VincentP

Green Monster

My son's lizard. It moves slow ... until it decides to move FAST!

My son's lizard. It moves slow ... until it decides to move FAST!
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Jul, 2016

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+10

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Zenith Award

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Absolute Masterpiece

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

Peer Award

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Top 30 rank

Behind The Lens

Location

This is my son's pet lizard. It's a pretty slow moving creature ... until it wants to move FAST! I shot the photo through the terrarium glass in my son's bedroom.

Time

The photo was captured mid-day, but I closed down all the natural light coming through the bedroom window, using only the lights of the terrarium.

Lighting

I wanted to capture all the color of this beautiful creature, so I decided to do an HDR bracketed exposure. I used only the terrarium and heat lamp illumination, which gave me the ability to open my lens so that I could get a very shallow depth of field. I love how the heat lamp's color only showed up in the red reflection in the eye of the lizard. And the fact that only its face is in focus.

Equipment

In order to get proper HDR exposures, I mounted my Canon 60D with an EFS 18-55 lens on my Bogen tripod to keep the camera still. Then hoped the lizard would also remain motionless.

Inspiration

We spent hours watching this beautiful lizard in my son's terrarium, and I thought, just maybe, I could get a nice "in the wild" kind of shot. I didn't want the photo to look like it was shot indoors.

Editing

I post processed the bracketed exposures through Photomatix Pro (I've since moved to Aurora HDR and Luminar). It's imperative to keep a "light hand" on the color, contrast and HDR effect sliders. Too much processing can make the photo look unnatural (unless that's the look you're going for). I wanted a natural looking photo that had the dynamic range the eye actually can perceive.

In my camera bag

I love my Canon 60D because it is so light. Yes, it does not have a full-frame sensor, so I have to make up for that in subject and composition. And I can almost always be found with my EFS 10-18 wide angle zoom, the EFS 18-55 zoom, and my EFS 55-250 zoom lens. That covers me from the miniscule to the massive! And don't be surprised if you catch me pulling out my drone to capture that ideal angle from the sky.

Feedback

Shooting a photograph of any small animal takes patience - especially wild animals. Patience is the best friend of a great photographer. Waiting for the right moment for any photograph takes patience. The perfect sunrise or sunset. The jump of a salmon moving upstream. The whimsical expression of a child. It ALL takes patience. If you're the impatient type, learn to slow down. Be calm. Wait. Smell the roses. Then, snap perfection.

See more amazing photos, follow VincentP

VincentP

VincentP

Green Monster

My son's lizard. It moves slow ... until it decides to move FAST!

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow VincentP

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