Aesculapian Snake

  Even if snakes and other reptiles do need sun and warmth, it doesn't mean that they are all the time sun bathing. Actually during the hottest time of the day, they try to find shelter and shade, just to cool of a little. And I suppose it's a good idea to get away from the reach and sight of people who most likely wouldn't hesitate to kill one. Here's my first Aesculapian Snake for this year, and I hope to find a couple more of these beautiful reptiles.

When I'm frustrated I shoot cats and dogs

  From time to time it happens that you get blocked, you just don't know what to shoot or how to shoot. Just a feeling that you are stuck. Not really a nice thing. When that happens to me I usually start shooting pets. I'm lucky to have nine "babies", two dogs, seven cats. It can be a bit crazy from time to time with such a big "family", but at least you get lots of photo opportunities. Sussu is our new comer, an adorable mixed breed female dog. She loves to bark cars, howl at the nights and to give kisses, as I probably mentioned in one other post. Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to make a photo of her, she goes away, moves her head in an unwanted direction or comes too close. Yesterday I was lucky, she was too lazy to move. So I laid my self on the ground at her level and started shooting. Here's too shots, pretty similar, but still there's a small difference. Personally I love the first one more because of the dandelion, although I love the shallow shallow depth of field in the second one too.

Green lizard

  It's so easy to just walk by all kinds of junk people are leaving here and there. Anyway it's just garbage, right? For me pieces of plywood, tiles, bricks, even old garment is a possible treasure chest. Usually not, but sometimes yes, you fiend an interesting bug or even a frog or lizard under junk. Today for instance, I decided to turn over this old piece of plywood. No high hopes, I'd turned it over before too, but you can always give a try. And there it was lurking, a green lizard in all its glory. First I thought it's dead, because it didn't move, but I guess it was too surprised to escape, so with a fast move I grabbed it. All this happened while on a walk with dogs, and they'd be very happy to have a tiny small lizard as a supper. So what to do? Just next to the plywood there is a tree, so I decided to lift the lizard on a branch and make a picture of it there, out of reach of the dogs. The critter didn't like the idea and fast moved on the other side of the tree. My thought was that my photo session was over. Just a careful look on the other side... and yes, there it was still, and even on a better place, just in the shine of the warm evening sun.

Finally snakes (hot spot #2)

  Just a small stop at one of my favorite spots. A tiny little river and its surroundings. Pretty good place for snakes, lizards and frogs and even terrapins. Today was my seson start for snakes. It's just a harmless dice snake, but still a snake. Ended up with stinking hands, one broken nail and the snake got tangled with my camera strap, but we made a few images and we had pretty fun too, or at least I had.

  

Tree frog

  Mid April and still haven't found a single snake, not even a grass snake. Lizards are out, frogs too, but not snakes. Probably they are moving, but I'm having hard times to find one. Yesterday though I managed to find one of my favorite frogs, a European tree frog. Almost missed it because it was attached to this dry old twig sticking out from a small ditch. The good thing was that the twig was grey so the bright green amphibian was visible and cought my eye almost accidentally, the bad thing was that the place were the twig was poking out from the water was quite wet and difficult to reach. No chance to use a tripod and I didn't wear rubber boots. So my only option was to shoot freehand and make my legs wet.

When you are not alone

  Combining a photo walk with walking the dog can be a bit frustrating sometimes. Just when you are ready for the shutter click, a dark shadow appears from somewhere and makes the subject run away or the backdrop is hidden behind a dog or the subject is smashed or you get a wet kiss or... that's life with a dog(s). So you understand there is a reason why I usually decide to go alone or at least not with a four-legged buddy, if I'm trying to achieve something more serious. Then there are those moments when the dogs are with you and you can try to make the picture when they are sniffing somewhere further away from you. You can always try to command, usually with quite a little success. And then you can hope that the that your furry friend can be used as a main subject or at least as a prop. Here's one from today... you can decide what's the main subject and what's a prop.

  

Just ugly and beautiful

  In tiny small ditches you can find a tiny little warty creature known as yellow bellied toad. The belly side is screaming yellow, but the back side is brown and warty and thus it's easy to miss one when you walk by. One interesting feature in this creature is its heart-shaped pupil. When you catch one, you can see the so called unkenreflex, the poor thing arching it self to show as much as possible of the bright underside and telling I'm toxic, don't eat me. Just a lovely little animal.