No, this spread-eagling Leopard Frog is not having the time of its life aboard a thrill ride at a local pond...rather, it is soon to be breakfast for a hungry Great Blue Heron. I was photographing plumage abstracts of this ultra cooperative heron from point-blank range (hence the settings) when it unexpectedly caught this frog...I was just way too close to fit the heron's complete head in the frame so I just did what was the best option - point the lens further down the bill and photograph the poor prey item...it turned out to be a wise decision!
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4 TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/160s., f/11, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, cropped for composition (about 75% FF), some harder edged grasses smoothed out via soft brush clone tool, NR to the BG.
You def. made the right decision...that's where the action is. As a frog fan I'm not offended as nature is doing it's/her thing and you exposed it all very well. I wish the droplet at the bottom wasn't cut off, but at that distance there was not much you could do.
Have no idea why but I do love this image, everything about it.
my very idle wandering mind actually sees no pain or fear from the frog, at first glance before I opened the big picture, he looked like he was smiling.
ah well another day maybe, today I'm lunch, tomorrow maybe I can fly.... Seriously wandering mind.
that being said, I wonder if the heron mistakes this for a fish?? I have never seen a heron here go for anything but fish.
Brilliant! Nice and sharp for that much focal length used, especially hand held at this working distance. Impressive. Exposure work...always solid...I don't care what number"d" canon camera you would wield, you are a master of exposure, and that is why your exposures rock. :) 1d,2d,7d, blah blah"d", it wouldn't matter.
I really dig the aquatic vegetation that came up with the frog here.
Linz, GBHs are very voracious and will eat anything alive that they can find...fish, frogs, rodents, snakes, etc. I've previously seenw one hunting a baby groundhog, and another hunting a chipmunk. A local photographer recently got one with a muskrat in its bill. If they can catch it they will try to eat it
Yogesh, yes, point-blank range means very close...this was minimum focussing distance.
Excellent image Daniel. I have GBH come to my pond and have seen them catch frogs, fish and moles but I have never been able to be close enough to photograph them but I keep trying.
Doomed!!! (Frog Lovers Beware!)
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