amazing lizard adventure.
it’s amazing because it contains lizards, because this is likely the first original content on my tumblr, and because these are some of the first low light photographs taken with a digital camera i’m trying to learn to use.
i’m ecstatic enough that no one else reading this actually has to be unless you also like lizards, then feel free. =]
after telling http://leupstripes.tumblr.com/ we had lizards in the backyard on hot nights that ran all over the wall i was determined to try and photograph them, despite the fact that it’s badly lit out there even with all the outdoor lights on and the fact that these lizards move at a speed that make toddlers powered by sugar seem like humanoid sloths.
lizard on the aforementioned wall, taken in almost complete darkness with a flash. their eyes don’t usually glow.
i saw this one on the wall but as i started walking over to take a picture a much smaller gecko ran out in front of me, stopped less than twelve inches from my feet and started doing some kind of lizard foot preening completely unaware of me. so i took a deep breath and accidentally shouted ‘oh, AWESOME!’ which made it stop preening and flatten itself against the concrete immobile. which was still good, except my family wanted to see what was awesome and couldn’t be persuaded to stay inside and before i could photograph the lizard all the foot clomping had made it run over to some pots on the other side of a clothes airer.
if i crept around to get closer i couldn’t see him any more so resigned to trying to hold the camera at an angle weird enough to get through most of the airer rungs and with some luck at least prove there was a lizard with this exceptionally blurry sideways photo.
then i lost sight of him over the rim of the pot so started sneaking back around the airer trying to see if he’d moved somewhere easier to photograph. after a while the spinach leaves shook slightly and he reappeared and started running all over them.
in a place a heck of a lot better for me to photograph, although he was almost invisible without the flash [not as you see here. this is a shot with low light and twilight setting and flash which you benefit from] so i missed him in a few shots and he wouldn’t stay still for others.
the camera manual suggests if your subject moves too fast it will blur so i have a few otherwise great pictures of the other leaves with a blurry but still neat lizard making every leaf he touches blur too. that and i was shaking trying to hold the new weird stance i was attempting to photograph him with so i’m not sure who’s fault it was that this one blurred or if something else was wrong with the camera settings.
still cute.
he seemed fairly calm and ignored the weirdo with the camera at times and i’m happy i didn’t alarm him too much.
i’ve never seen one run onto a plant before or be so photogenic and allow people so close, so it was kind of amazing. given the way they usually act i wasn’t even sure i’d be able to photograph any before they ran off.
after i’d taken what felt like an amazing amount of photos i decided to leave him in peace and see if any of them were actually viewable, and that’s it. =]
