Reptile and Amphibian Thread on mu-43.com

 

Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridus), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, Lumix 14-140mm f4-5.6 zoom at 140mm

iso100, f8, 1/500 sec

I have always been a fan of snakes and other reptiles. Growing up in Oklahoma was perfect for that.

I came across a nice post on mu-43.com, where people are starting to submit their reptile and amphibian images:

(Click Here) to see the thread on mu-43.com.

I came across this lovely fellow above on a hike in Roman Nose State Park, while visiting my parents last year. On my return hike out, I noticed what looked like a new branch laying across the path. Then I saw it was moving. I ran up, and captured a few shots of him. He was not too interested in me, which was fine by me. We both went on our merry way.

I have a good friend, Larry Mendoza, who's President of the Virginia Herpetological Society. Recently, I participated in a survey with him, where we found a few snakes, frogs, and several box turtles. I posted a box turtle image a few days ago.

It's a shame that snakes are so poorly understood. They are critical to the environment, and do an excellent job of keeping pest populations under control. And, to me, they're just plain cool.

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Pond Life Shows Spring Is Here

 

Dragonfly Larva, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm f4-5.8 at 140mm

iso160, f5.8, 1/2000 sec

 

So, in my full-time job, I work for a biomedical research organization. One of our researchers studies the predator-prey behavior of dragonflies. It turns out, these guys are the ultimate predators of the insect world, and exhibit very complicated visual processing and use sophisticated guidance algorithms to intercept their flying prey in mid air.

 

Okay, by now you're wondering "What the heck does this have to do with photography?" Well, our scientists gather dragonfly larvae, like the one above, from the ponds on our campus. I got the opportunity to enjoy a little warm spring weather, and photograph them in action.

 

 

Collecting, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm f4-5.8 at 140mm

iso160, f5.5, 1/500 sec

 

While they were collecting, we started to notice what we thought were frogs singing to each other. They turned out to be toads, Eastern American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus americanus), which were quite amorous, and the singing led to other things.

 

 

Singing to the Girls, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm f4-5.8 at 140mm

iso160, f5.8, 1/500 sec

I love how you can see the vibrations in the water in the shot above. In the shot below, a pair are breeding. The helical black strands that you see in the picture below are the fertilized eggs.

Breeding Pair, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm f4-5.8 at 140mm

iso160, f5.8, 1/500 sec

 

On this particular day, the boss got selected to spend an hour in one of the staff's shoes (waders). As you can see below, he had a pretty good time out wading around in the pond.

 

A Good Day at Work, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3, 14-140mm f4-5.8 at 140mm

iso160, f5.8, 1/500 sec

 

It's nice to see that Spring is here.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com