Water Dragon

[firsty]

this water dragon lives right in the middle of Parramatta and lets you get to within about 10m before is high tails it
in this shot he is actually holding on the the vertical side of the Parramatta river wall and I'm standing above him shooting into the river and I had the camera upside down in portrait orientation to frame it like this
I'm happy with the shot but I'm not sure if I should clone out or at least drop the brightness of the twigs on the left


70-200VR @200mm f2.8 ISO200 1/125

[padey]

Great shot, great light and beautiful bokeh.

[christiand]

Hi Keith,

great shot of a beautiful lizard.
Can't wait until they are out and about in the National Botannical Garden in Canberra.
I'm wondering if your white balance was a bit off.
The lizard looks a bit too orange to me.
Also - I don't know myself - is mating time coming up ?
If so the males will display more greens on their bodies and orange on their cheeks.

Thanks for sharing,
CD

[firsty]

Christain
the shot was taken right on sundown and every thing was this golden colour
at first I couldn't see him as he blended in very well
here are a few different white balances

opened with lightroom with WB "as shot" (camera was set to direct sunlight)


lightrooms auto WB


the coloring that I saw was somewhere between my original post and the as shot version
note: the river in the background is a dirty brown and there looks to be to too much blue sky reflection in both the as shot and the auto versions

here is another shot from the same shoot with the coloring one would expect under normal daylight (he is starting to get some of the red mating coloring but I have seen him with lots more)

[DebT]

Hi, nice detail in face and head texture and like the angle of the shot.
I find the twigs distracting partly because they are so close to the face and partly because the curve is not repeated or balanced elsewhere in the shot so would experiment and try to push them into the background for added depth but dull/darken and blur them.
I really like the colour in #5 and would like to see it cropped to square (losing the top section) - think it would put the eye on the intersection of thirds and really concentrate the focal point and emphasise the texture of face and skin.
Both are still great shots as is - how close were you ?
Deb T

[Bindii]

Also - I don't know myself - is mating time coming up ?
If so the males will display more greens on their bodies and orange on their cheeks.

Thanks for sharing,
CD

Yep its nearly mating season for them now so the males will go all green and stuff...

I really like this image... its so natural looking and pin sharp too.. I would clone the twigs out.. but even if you didnt its still such a great pic...

[ATJ]

Keith,

Great shot. I agree with Christian on the white balance and think that something between your original post and the Lightroom Auto would look most natural. I also agree with Deb on the twigs. I'm not sure if you can clone them out.