A last minute decsion on my part put me in Oklahoma at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge with fellow BPNer Chris Ober last week and weekend where this image was taken. It is a Collard Lizard aka the "Mountain Boomer" because it was mistakenly thought to emit a sound that echoed through the mountain valleys... It is the state lizard of Oklahoma. We found several in several different locations within the refuge.
What a treat! I hope to find one of these males in breeding "plumage" at some point on a trip out that way! Thanks for sharing! i wish the nose/head area were a tad sharper...
I sharped a bit more in LightRoom, but I think this is more a DOF issue. Since he was kinda quartering away from me I guess I should've stopped this down a bit.
This is going to sound strange.... But I'd done my original PP in Lightroom v1.3 (I believe it was) and when I open LR last night to resize and post this here in BPN I went ahead and downloaded the latest update to LR (1.4.1 I think). Upon opening this image in the latest version of LR I noticed a DISTINCT difference in sharpness. It seemed to have retained my settings, but looked different. I added more sharpening and reposted which looks better. (Still should've stopped it down a bit.)
With the eye not being totally in focus, which to me is vital for a close up like this, it lacks a certain punch. Perhaps with the head turned more to the right of the frame, it would have nore impact.You did however catch the colors. The repost is much cleaner than the original.