It has been a hectic week. With the warmer than normal weather we have been having the American Toads have emerged and began calling about a month earlier than normal, and I have been out in the ponds every night getting lots of fresh frog images. Tonight it is a little cooler so things sound relatively quiet out in the ponds tonight...a good night to get caught up on things I suppose.
Every spring when I go out to the ponds to photograph the frogs and toads during the spring chorus, I look forward to seeing a huge Snapping Turtle that over-winters in these ponds. I have seen this turtle every year for 15 years and I presume that it feeds on crayfish, frogs and frog eggs before heading off to a more permanent body of water. Last night I found it again among a batch of Wood Frog eggs. The turtle was under the water's surface for this image, but it would lift its head slightly from time-to-time to check me out. Last year I posted a Fractalius of the turtle, so this year I am posting a Topaz B&W Effects treatment to the latest image of this old friend.
A face only a Mother could love! Wonderfully processed pattern and detail of this close-up capture, Andrew. Glad you two were able to rendezvous again in the Spring.
This is cool! I was trying to figure out what kind of frog this was till I read your description The details are awesome as is the pattern. Surely the water added a bit of blur but it has still come out very nice. TFS.