"Little Poser"

COMMON WALL LIZARD (PODARCIS MURALIS) | ON HYDRANGEA | 06-2023 | TICINO | SWITZERLAND

 

My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...

 

You can find my latest ANIMAL VIDEO (of my roe deer visitors) here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3GFWK6hGYc

 

THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:

If anybody asks me what kind of photography I do, I usually answer: The "lazy-garden" kind. As the name already implies, this is the "style" of our beloved art-form that is particularly well-suited for lazy bums like me who don't want to venture far from their own premises 😜 .

 

Adherents of the "lazy -garden" school tend to often photograph what some of my Flickr friends jokingly refer to as "creepy crawlies", since those can be found in most gardens and are also relatively easy to capture with a camera (well, if your standards are reasonably low, as mine definitely are).

 

Now, if you too would like to succeed at this (at least in my case) least sophisticated form of photography, there's two rules, which - if followed correctly - might lead to presentable results.

 

Rule Number 1: "Thou Shalt Not Screw Up The Shot." (I personally think that's the more important of the two, so I put it at No 1 😉 ).

 

Rule Number 2: "Thou Shalt Make Sure Thou Hast Many A Colorful Flower In Thy Garden For Thy Creepy Crawlies To Pose On."

 

I still struggle with rule No 1, but I'm getting better at following rule No 2, which finally brings me to the photo above.

 

The gorgeous purple hydrangea this common wall lizard was friendly enough to pose on is situated in such a perfect spot in my garden that it usually gets sunshine until sunset, which makes it an ideal basking spot for those of my scaly friends who like to catch the last few rays of the evening sun.

 

As you might imagine, it's a plant that is highly popular in the local reptile community; the hydrangea's flowers are very big and can easily sustain the weight of a lizard, and it grows next to a dense thuja hedge which provides excellent cover if danger approaches. Most importantly though - although I doubt the lizards would agree - its intense color makes for the perfect background for a photo.

 

But, as has been the case since the dawn of time when photographers were first created, the universe thinks it's fun to make everything extra hard for Homo photographicus, so there's a catch. In hundreds of attempts, I've only ever managed twice to capture a little poser on that cursed plant: because the darn thing is practically impossible to approach without scaring away the lizards.

 

There's only one way to access the hydrangea for a usable shot, which is by turning around the corner of my shed - but then it's right in front of you (whoever planted the bloody vegetable obviously wasn't a nature photographer ). This means a slow approach - which is the only approach my lizard residents accept from me - is impossible, and whenever they see so much as my (admittedly rather big) nose looming around the shed's corner, they immediately dive into the foliage for safety.

 

Luckily for me, every once in a while there's a fella who just doesn't scare as easy as the rest of them (they're few and far between though; for kind of obvious reasons, the bravest lizards rarely live to be a hundred and write a memoir titled "Why I Was Never Afraid Of Cats"). And the feisty little guy in the photo was that fella.

 

As you can see, he kept a watchful eye on me (so I guess there's still hope for the little poser), but other than that he was very much into the photo session and actually reminded me of certain humans who crave to be "discovered" so bad they throw a pose as soon as they see a camera ("YES: I'm gonna be on the cover of 'Lizard Weekly' - I'll be famous!!'" 😂 ). Not that I wanna complain though; I actually wish more wildlife had that kind of mindset 😉.

 

So, that's all I can tell you about the shot; for once I have no actual anecdote, and I hope you'll forgive me that it's yet another lizard photo (don't forget: my username here IS "Lacerta", which is Latin for lizard, after all 😁.

 

I don't know why I have such a fascination for these fellas. And it's not like I'm short of new photos of other species; despite (or perhaps thanks to) the lousy weather we got in Ticino pretty much from February until the end of June, I shot more birds from my garden than I ever could have hoped for - and also some beautiful roe deer (I filmed them too, in case you're interested, here's a clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3GFWK6hGYc ).

 

It might be because of their expressive eyes that I love to photograph lizards so much. Unlike many other reptiles that have eyes that - while very beautiful - can seem somewhat alien in their appearance, the two lizard species in my garden (the western green lizard and the common wall lizard) both have eyes that remind me of birds or even dogs.

 

When they look at you, you can see curiosity and intelligence (I'm aware I may projecting these things but I don't mind ;-) and a whole array of emotions that we usually rather associate with our furry pets and some very clever feathered friends - not with scaly, cold-blooded reptiles.

 

Anyway, I hope you like the photo, and thank you all so much for stopping by! Many greetings from Switzerland and have a wonderful day everyone! 🙏 😊 ❤

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