Texas Whiptail Lizard

[Mack Hicks]

This Texas Whiptail Lizard lives under the concrete sidewalk of the barn/quarters where I stayed during the recent Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest. We developed a relationship of sorts, I would give him mealworms and he would pose for me, even letting me get very close. This is cropped about 25%. Used to chase these guys when I was a kid, never caught one. They are not as scarce at the horned lizard, but are much less common than they were before the fire ant invasion.

D300 Micro Nikkor 105 f/2.8D
1/125 f/8 ISO 400
PP LR3 , cropped, sharpened, NR

[John Storjohann]

Hi Mack. Nice capture...love the flicking tongue! Good color, nice sharpness where needed...I wish you had a little more room on the left...so the leg was quite as tight against the frame...and a little more to the right so the head wasn't quite so centered. If it were mine, I'd darken the highlight in the background, just above and to the right of the head...and maybe evict or blur that one, very sharply focused bit of rock in the foreground, dead center at the bottom. Nicely done!

[Arthur Morris]

Love the fine details and that tongue. And that blue chest. It needs room below more than behind as you have slightly clipped the toes.... Looks as if there was stuff below the lizard that you were trying to avoid.... The BKGR is somewhat a problem; if it fits with your personal ethics you could get rid of or tone down the white areas....

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Mack. Beautiful colors along with excellent sharpness - and the tongue takes it up a notch! You have two excellent critiques above with some good suggestions to consider so I won't repeat. Overall, this is very nicely done and a few tweaks will make it even better.

[Mack Hicks]

Thanks for your suggestions. I am new to macro, don't have a great feel for DOF with the macro lens. I do like it better with the darker background, the light areas now better resemble lichens. I changed the crop, it is flush left and at the top. There was no room below, as I was flat on the the ground. I was actually trying to frame the lizard against the small piece of wood with the lichens on it to keep some of the barn clutter from showing. I had put two shovels of dirt and leaves from under a nearby tree along the with piece of wood on the driveway outside his den, so it looked more like habitat than concrete and to try to create a more natural BG. Wish I had inched back to get his toes.

[Brendan Dozier]

Super cool looking lizard, Mack! Nice close-up capture and great color and detail. Good suggestions above, and the repost looks good.

[bhavya joshi]

Wonderful lizard with flick tongue, Nice detail and compose.. agree with above comments.. Best luck for next.