Lying in the Mud

I spent the better part of this evening lying in a small bog, photographing the emerging fiddle-heads of netted chain ferns. I've photographed this small cluster of plants each year as they've emerged but this is the first time that I believe I've come close to illustrating this ancient phenomenon properly. With the aide of my now indispensable Sigma 15mm 2.8 lens, I am able to show both the plant and its relationship to its habitat –an important element missing in a lot of macro photography, I'm afraid.

I made this image just before sunset. Next week, I'm going to revisit this scene and make the same photograph around 10:00 am, when the sky is nice and blue. There is a secret here for all you wide angle macro junkies out there. Can you figure it out?

Wide-Angled Salamanders

Over the past few years I have been photographing a small population of rare, IUCN Red Listed Green Salamanders in the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment of South Carolina. As I mentioned in an earlier post, green salamanders are known for inhabiting small crevices in fairly dry granitic outcrops. Although I made my first photos of the elusive species a couple of years ago (See Outdoor Photographer article, November 2008), I was disappointed that the images didn't show more of the amphibian's unique habitat.
A few days ago, I visited my site for the first time in months and my friend Alex Garcia and I were amazed to find two large specimens literally sitting out on the rock before us. Ultimately, we would find three individuals. After making a few standard images, I decided to try out my wide-angle macro technique. I was really excited with what I was seeing through my lens but knew that the image needed some fill-flash. Alex was kind of enough to be my assistant for the shoot. He diffused the flash through a sheet of tracing paper which was held fairly close to the subject and set the strobe on wide-angle. Although I would've like to have had more depth-of-field, I was still really pleased with the results and am looking forward to making more salamander and small animal portraits like this in the near future.