Hazardous materials

[Alan Lillich]

Spotting a salamander near home this morning I decided it would make a good subject for some multi-flash macro practice. I try hard to not be squeamish with critters, I picked it up and put it in a small paper bag to carry home. After getting the camera, lights, and background setup around a moss covered rock in the back yard I made a number of attempts to place it in a photogenic position. Although slow it kept turning away and trying to walk off, so I had to keep moving it back. I managed to get one OK shot, shown here. All of this with bare hands of course.

After processing the image I decided to look up what kind of critter it was, finding out it was a California Coast Range Newt. I also learned:

"Poisonous skin secretions containing tetrodotoxin repel most predators. This potent neurotoxin is widespread throughout the skin, muscles, and blood, and can cause death in many animals, including humans, if eaten in sufficient quantity. (One study estimated that 1,200 - 2,500 mice could be killed from the skin of one California Newt.) This poison can also be ingested through a mucous membrane or a cut in the skin, so care should always be taken when handling newts."

I guess there is some benefit to being squeamish. Feeling fine so far ...

Canon 7D, Sigma 150 macro lens, ISO 200, f/8, 1/200, two SB-26 flashes supplying most of the light.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Allen. Interesting story! I hope you are still feeling well! I guess knowing your subject beforehand would be a good rule of thumb. :Whoa!: It looks like you had a good setup, but an uncooperative critter. The raised left foot gives a feeling of movement and you have good sharpness within your DOF. I would just wish for a little more DOF to get the area between shoulder and jaw also sharp. If this was mine, I'd spend some time carefully cloning a lot of the flash-generated spectral highlights from the newt's skin (always a problem with moist-skinned amphibians). I hope to see more of your work here in Macro!

[Faraaz Abdool]

Alan - neat shot you got of this newt! I hope all is well with you. I would've popped some allergy pills just in case ;-). The thing you really gotta look out for when handling these creatures is an allergic reaction. Most times nothing happens, but you really don't want to experience that odd time. Another tip - always handle creatures you're unsure about with a little twig to move them into position, or into a bag as you did. Be careful please!
I love the green BG, the focus seems a bit soft on the eye for some reason. Could just be how I'm seeing it here. Usually I really like shallow DOF, but given the newt's raised left foot, I wish that was in focus. Looks like you had a distant backdrop - that would've allowed you to stop down a bit for extra DOF. Other than that, beautiful mossy setting and absolutely gorgeous green BG.

[Alan Lillich]

Thanks Steve and Faraaz. I had no ill effects, but next time I'll use latex gloves. I agree about the specular highlights. I used f/8 to stay clear of diffraction with the 7D. My original plan was to do some focus bracketing so I did not have static DOF in mind. Then I had so much trouble with the newt walking off that I forgot other things. This was the only usable shot I got. Faraaz, you're right about the eye being a little soft, the near edge of the jaw is sharp. It kept turning away from me and starting to walk down the back of the rock. I even tried putting it in a cardboard box in our spare refrigerator for 1/2 hour, but that didn't help.

The BG is actually pretty close. There is a wood fence about 8 feet back, I draped a light green sheet on it to not have brown newt against brown wood. That looked too bland, so I put a large fern frond about a foot behind the newt. I'm not 100% happy with the crop because of that. The central stem was a distinct lighter horizontal line so I cropped just below it. I'll try reworking the image to have more room on top and remove the specular highlights.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Allan you have my sympathy I took similar shots of a common newt in my back garden a few years ago and it too kept moving from an ideal pose. The use of flash on reptiles and amphibians often results is specular and generally flashy skin, if at all possible I would tend to avoid the flash and move the ISO up to avoid this kind of artefact. I really like the set up of the mossy log and the green background. I am not too sure if you have ideal focus the right forelimb appears to be the sharpest point however this could be due to flash highlights making the head area less clearly defined.

[John Chardine]

Hi Alan- Beautiful animal. I love the colours. The image is sharp where it counts although I might spot-sharpen the eye a little more. It would be nice to see the whole animal. Newts often have spectacular tails.

Tetrodotoxin is right up there at the top of the list of toxins and is also found in Blue-ringed Octopus and Pufferfish. A definite killer in small amounts.

I trust you replaced the newt back in its habitat.

[Bob Miller]

Allan.Another vote for sharpness esp in the eye. I think I would have closed down to f11 and raised the ISO to 400

[Jerry van Dijk]

Ditto on the sharpness, but I appreciate the difficult situation with a moving animal. You solved the BG problem pretty well!