Gecko Macro session

Some of the most original photos are often taken with no planning or forethought. Being inspired to shoot spontaneously by an interesting subject can really get your adrenalin flowing. And, the combination of dramatic light along with this unusual and colorful lizard made for an interesting half hour.

My son, John, who raises exotic reptiles, walked in my office the other day ....."hey, dad, check this out. It's a really cool Tokay Gecko...can we get some shots?"

So, within minutes we were in the studio setting up lights for this unplanned session. Since the gecko was only about 6 inches long, I set up 3 small Westcott softboxes...all coming from different angles, to cover our butts, as the gecko proceeded to run and change direction constantly. Meanwhile, John had grabbed a small piece of tree bark to act as a logical background...and he was holding this in amongst the lights, so we could TRY and get the best angle between numerous leaps to the floor by our un-cooperative subject.

The lights were set in place and remained in their initial location....and after taking an incident flash reading, we had to try and keep the subject-to-light distance constant, to avoid under or over exposure. This was John's job! I was busy enough trying to frame and focus. So, when the smoke cleared, we loaded the CF card into the computer and analyzed our efforts. We had gotten some pretty interesting results....in fact these shots would be just what I needed for the upcoming NANPA (North American Nature Photographer's Assoc) Conference , the following weekend.

We chose the most dramatic shot and used it as the subject for a limited, signed edition print to be given away to visitors to Tamron's booth. It was shot with their 180mm lens, and the detail in the skin texture and verigated eyes is unreal. The final print was a 13 x 19 inch inkjet version using the HP 9180 and their Hahnemuelle Aquarella fine art paper. Considering it's printed on very porous and thick paper, the details and vibrancy were amazing!

Thanx to my friend and Photoshop whiz, Kevin Connery, for the tech assist with the layout.