Emerald Basilisk - in Costa Rica

[Steve Maxson]

When this juvenile Emerald Basilisk lizard (Basiliscus plumifrons) was spotted, I was set up to photograph rainforest birds so I used my longest "macro" lens at a distance of 4.6 m. 1D IV, 500 mm f/4 + 1.4X, 1/20, f/6.3, ISO 800, 580EX at -1 2/3 + better beamer for fill (at this distance the better beamer wasn't really necessary), tripod, mirror lock, 2-sec shutter delay, IS turned off. Cropped from a horizontal original. I removed the flash-generated catchlight, cleaned up some distractions in the background, and ran NR on the background. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Jim Bridges]

A portrait any lizard would be proud of for sure! The color and scale details are wonderful!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Very nice colors and details. Excellent control of the point of ocus as well, sharp where it needs to be. That 500 makes a pretty good macro lens!

[Ken Childs]

Wonderful portrait, Steve! Everything came together in this shot.....that eye really draws me in! :cheers:

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hey Steve, awesome capture...did you get to see it run on water. These lizards are so cool when they do that. I might evict the little bit of debris between the toes it if were mine, but that's just me. Very nice work!!!

[Bob Miller]

Hi Steve...This is an awesome image! Loving the sharpness and the eye just is amazing. Bg is beautiful! I agree with removing debris from between toes

[Steve Maxson]

Hey Steve, awesome capture...did you get to see it run on water. These lizards are so cool when they do that.

This one was near a pond, but it was content to sit motionlessly on this tree trunk and we didn't encourage it to flee. :S3: