Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)
There are a lot of reasons to love spring of course…but for a photographer of little critters a big reason is that suddenly there are lots of things to photograph! During the winter it can be a real challenge to find subjects, but when the weather warms up all you have to do some days is walk outside and there is a good chance you’ll find something interesting…
Last weekend I went out to mow the lawn and happened upon this little Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla). I scooped it up to save it from the mower and of course to take the opportunity to take a few photos. I opted to take it into the house and photograph it in a white box. It would have been nice to have photographed it in its natural surroundings, but it wasn’t likely to pose for me after being picked-up—and understandably so. Besides, I thought that the soft lighting of the white box would make for some nice pictures while the box itself would help contain the critter during the shoot.
Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)
I set-up the white box in the usual way (see How to: white box photography of Macleay’s spectre stick insects) and used my new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds body. For a lens I first chose my trusty Zuiko 35mm macro (using the MMF-3 Adapter to attach it to the body) but I found that not only was the auto focus very slow, I also found the viewfinder to be rather dark. I ended-up doing much of the shoot using the Zuiko 12-50mm kit lens instead. Hopefully the viewfinder issue with the 35mm macro won’t be a problem when I am shooting outdoors with brighter ambient light.
Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)
An addition to my usual white box set-up was a cup of clean rainwater. Amphibians have smooth, soft skin which is permeable to water. Therefore water evaporates rapidly from their skin and a small frog like this one could dry up and die in a relatively short time. The cup of water was there so that I could give it a little swim periodically to keep it hydrated and healthy. I also washed my hands with lots of fresh water to ensure I didn’t have any soap or other potentially dangerous chemicals on my hands that could be absorbed through the frog’s skin.
Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla)
The thing about shooting tree frogs in a studio is that they bounce around a lot…but not like a rubber ball—more like a piece of wet toilet paper. They leap and then stick in place wherever they land. Photographing a tree frog typically goes something like the following:
- Put the frog in place for the photo.
- “Sproing—splat” as it immediately leaps away and lands on the wall.
- Put the frog in place for the photo.
- “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the wall again.
- Put the frog in place for the photo.
- “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on your face.
- Put the frog in place for the photo.
- “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the wall again.
- Put the frog in place for the photo.
- “Sproing—splat.” Frog is on the lens.
- Put the frog in the cup of water to rehydrate, and clean the lens.
- Start again and repeat.
In-studio (white box) photograph of a Pacific tree frog as it peers into the camera lens
Eventually if you are persistent and patient the frog will sit in place long enough to get a photo…maybe two…before it jumps again. And that is pretty much how this shoot went. As you can see I did get some nice photos of this little critter. As I expected, the white box did a nice job of lighting the critter, and its colours show up nice and bright against the pure white background.
Once I was satisfied that I had a good series of pictures I decided to try and take another series with a more natural background. Those photos will be the subject of my next post (White box photographs of a Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla): part II).
Stay tuned…
EC
The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5
Lens: Zuiko 12-50mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 zoom and Zuiko 35mm macro
Settings: manual exposure (F11-16 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Vivitar 283 flash and VP-1 Vari-power adapter (1/16 power)
ISO: 200