Bullfrog

Lovely portrait :) kind of funny..."well, here I am", kind of face :).

Best regards to you! 

What I like about this is that one eye seems to be looking into the lens, while the other eye is keeping a lookout for any hapless prey that might come within reach.

An excellent example of bullfrog portraiture in three-quarter profile.

Love his expression and how you can see his feet so clearly within the water in his shadow. Very well done. Thank you for sharing and it is good to see your new postings.  :)

I always love your B&W work, which is so graceful regardless of the subject matter.  The details in the skin are remarkable, almost an abstract wonderland of tones.  I also like the lilypad floating above his head.  Home or halo?  It depends on the interpretation.

Tatjana,

I get the impression when I look at frogs that they are grinning at me in a sly sort of way, as if they know a little secret that keeps them amused which they are not going to share with a mere human.

 

Jim,

I just try to apply what I've gleaned from studying your masterful portraiture work.  I seem to meet more frogs than pretty women so I make due with whats available.

 

Trisha,

I also liked the effect of the feet showing up in her shadow. The play of reflection is always fun to work with.

 

Jeff,

In this instance it was all about the light. The sky was a thin overcast of low cloud with a clear blue sky above. The result was very bright hazy diffuse, yet quite direction, lighting, the sort of thing that would take some time and several soft boxes to set up in the studio.  By adjusting the position of myself and the camera I was able to place the hot spot of the haze enshrouded sun , precisely over the frog to give her her own moment in the spotlight. When nature conspires to give you such beautiful light on such a fine subject the actual task of working up the black and white rendition is a pleasure.

I read your comments to Jeff on the light in this picture. Intelligent use of the situation and the day, Gordon, and of course the resulting image perfectly reveals the creature in all its alien, warty frogishness. Beauitfully done.

Hello Jack,

 

Glad to discover you found time out from exploring the streets with your new camera to drop by :-)   ............ always a pleasure.  Over the summer I've been trying to catalogue some of the reptiles and amphibian in my area as a sort of side project.  A small few of them seem to stand alone as photographs. This one may fall into that category.

 

Gordon. What a fabulous image you got.The exposure is just perfect  I can see details all over the image. I guess what I appreciate the most aside from the technical aspects is the black and whit process. I has great tonal range and contrast. I bet this image looks awesome in paper.

If I may be picky, the leaf on the back seems a bit distracting to me. As a photographer I understand that we have to deal with certain things that are in the frame and some times there is no way around it. With or without the leave I still love the image.

I'm curious to know if this is the only frame of it, or if you tried a landscape shot from a higher angle?

Regards

Alex

Alex thanks for the critique. To answer your question yes I did take several frames of this frog. As I approached I did not know at what point she would jump, so I hedged my bets by shooting as I crept up. I do have several frames from a higher vantage point. I do understand your view regarding that lily pad leaf although I do not share your feeling that it is a distraction. My own rational was as follows.  The size and shape of the shadow under the frogs chin and the shape and position of the pad sort of echo each other, framing the frog between them.  I have frames that are wider with more surrounding and a couple that are tighter without the pad. This one seemed to have the nicest balance.