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Mating rituals of the gold dust day gecko
Mating rituals of the gold dust day gecko
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Jun, 2020Views
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Awards
Hidden Gem Award
Winner in tongues out Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
All Star
Emotions
Impressed
Happy
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Behind The Lens
Location
I shot this photo near my home, during the COVID-19 stay home order in Hawaii. I’ve lived here for several years and never seen the gold dust day geckos in my neighborhood, but during a walk I spotted one in the spider lily plant. Once I started to really look for them, I found many hiding around this location.Time
The gold dust day geckos are diurnal, so they can easily be found throughout the day. For this particular photo, it was late in the day while the sun about to set.Lighting
A ring flash was used in the photo, since it was in the shadows from the plant.Equipment
This was shot with a Nikon D500, AF-S Micro NIKKOR 85mm 1:3.5G ED lens and a NEEWER Macro Ring Lite.Inspiration
With everything shutdown to COVID-19, I spent a lot more time exploring around my neighborhood. This helped pass the time! :-)Editing
Just the basic post-processing techniques used to clean-up, sharpen and slightly crop the photo.In my camera bag
My current focus has been on macro photography in nature. Therefore, a macro lens and a ring flash are the most critical pieces of equipment. Since I’m usually taking photos of animals/invertebrates, I usually am handholding the camera for quicker response to compose the photo.Feedback
Patience. I went to this same location everyday for about 2 weeks for a couple hours. I would typically find a few gold dust day geckos that would hang around, but hide as I approached, but every now and then one would not be shy and allow me to get close and take several photos. For this photo, there were actually 3 very active gold dust day geckos in the plant. They kept chasing each other around and sticking their tongues out. When I got home, I searched online and found out it was part of their mating ritual.
