1505_0364 Northern Leopard Frog
The pond was full of Northern Leopard Frogs. Photographing them required a slow, slithering approach on elbows and knees at the pond's edge, hand holding the 105 mm macro with a 1.7x teleconverter to allow closer focusing and some distance between myself and subject.
Every time I photograph frogs, I remember a lesson from the old Time-Life books on photography that my parents bought for me in the Sixties, when I was a teenager. One of the volumes illustrated the perceptual differences in vision caused by the eye structure of different species - specifically, the lens. There were black and white photos taken through the actual lenses of different animals. I don't remember how or if they took into account the way a creature's brain presumably processes the visual information, and no doubt any theories presented then would be considered hopelessly out of date today. Nevertheless, it was all very interesting.
The frog's eye in particular struck me and stuck in my memory. Apparently frogs see in black and white - without a grayscale. Any tone brighter than a middle tone will be processed as white, and anything darker will appear black to a frog. Visual acuity is therefore extremely poor; however, they are sensitive to motion. Regardless of the accuracy of this fifty years later, it does explain why you can creep up on a frog by moving very slowly toward it, and eliminating any sideways motion. (I think any 10-year old who lives in the country could probably offer the same advice!) So... this I did... sliding into the cold water, not really pleasant, but disregarding this as much as possible, eye glued to the viewfinder until I reached minimum focus distance.
The frog didn't move. You can see my reflection in its eye. My lens was just above the water surface, and I was careful not to accidentally dunk it. Spare the camera gear, sacrifice the body!
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
1505_0364 Northern Leopard Frog
The pond was full of Northern Leopard Frogs. Photographing them required a slow, slithering approach on elbows and knees at the pond's edge, hand holding the 105 mm macro with a 1.7x teleconverter to allow closer focusing and some distance between myself and subject.
Every time I photograph frogs, I remember a lesson from the old Time-Life books on photography that my parents bought for me in the Sixties, when I was a teenager. One of the volumes illustrated the perceptual differences in vision caused by the eye structure of different species - specifically, the lens. There were black and white photos taken through the actual lenses of different animals. I don't remember how or if they took into account the way a creature's brain presumably processes the visual information, and no doubt any theories presented then would be considered hopelessly out of date today. Nevertheless, it was all very interesting.
The frog's eye in particular struck me and stuck in my memory. Apparently frogs see in black and white - without a grayscale. Any tone brighter than a middle tone will be processed as white, and anything darker will appear black to a frog. Visual acuity is therefore extremely poor; however, they are sensitive to motion. Regardless of the accuracy of this fifty years later, it does explain why you can creep up on a frog by moving very slowly toward it, and eliminating any sideways motion. (I think any 10-year old who lives in the country could probably offer the same advice!) So... this I did... sliding into the cold water, not really pleasant, but disregarding this as much as possible, eye glued to the viewfinder until I reached minimum focus distance.
The frog didn't move. You can see my reflection in its eye. My lens was just above the water surface, and I was careful not to accidentally dunk it. Spare the camera gear, sacrifice the body!
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2015 James R. Page - all rights reserved.