Jesus Christ Lizard

[Milo Burcham]

Emerald basilisk - female
Costa Rica

One of the neat things about photographing in rainforest is how "alive" it is. While photographing a boat-billed heron, I noticed this basilisk watching me from a nearby palm leaf. These are the lizards that can walk (run actually) on water which is a common sight while hiking near creeks.

Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D
Date/Time: 2008:03:24 04:46:57
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Exposure compensation: -2/3
Flash: External E-TTL
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous: frame 1
ISO: 640
Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal length: 400mm
AF mode: AI Servo AF
Image size: 4368 x 2912
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto

[Van Hilliard]

I love this. Great color and detail on the basilisk. That eye is incredible. I've seen video of these as well as some classic photos of the lizard running on water. A fascinating species.

[Robert Amoruso]

Great looking image. Works for me all around.

[Steve Maxson]

Love it. Good color, contrast, sharpness, and composition.

[BillPelzmann]

Very nice. Based on your settings, it looks like flash was pretty much required in these circumstances.
It certainly encourages me to get out and learn how to use mine.

[Milo Burcham]

I am no expert with flash but there are many practical applications for it in wildlife photography, especially when shooting in forest. As you can see in my techs, I underexposed the ambient exposure by dialing in -2/3 EC (this created the darker background) and used flash as main light (ETTL at 0 or no flash exposure compenasation) to illumintate the lizard.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

nice use of flash.
sharp & well composed image.