Collett's Tree Frog

Gallery: WildlifePosted August 10, 201174 views7 comments

I accompanied a herpetologist on a 120 m transect through secondary forest by the Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Bornean Malaysia. We encountered 12 species of frog, including this Collett's tree frog Polypedates colletti. The diversity of wildlife was astounding. The transects in oil palm plantations nearby were not nearly so rich.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Sigma 150 f/2.8 EX DG Macro
1/125 seconds
f/7.1
ISO 400
Flash (430EX Speedlite)

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on August 10, 2011 at 11:43 AM

Well spotted and captured Adam ..dont know about the empty space on the left ..is it one bit more .. well done

Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by Jeffry Oonk on August 10, 2011 at 12:04 PM

That's a great shot of a lovely frog Adam.
12 Frog species found ain't bad at all.
It is a difficult subject and you managed well.
Like to see more of the interesting animals that you saw on this journey.
Thx
Jef

Registered on February 5, 2011, 21 Posts, 122 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on August 10, 2011 at 1:02 PM

Fantastic pose Adam with strong eye contact. Although the unavoidable use of flash is very evident, this works well for me. The inclusion of the black empty space makes sense, as the pose of the frog begs for a horizontal framing and it gives the frog space to look (or even jump) into. Also would it be great for text!

The transects in oil palm plantations nearby were not nearly so rich.

Not very surprising is it!?

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Adam Seward on August 10, 2011 at 1:32 PM

Thanks for the nice comments.

I thought the same about the space for text

No, not at all surprising about the low diversity in the plantations. They were a very depressing sight. Only very recently, Sabah has made it mandatory for plantations to leave a corridor of forest alongside rivers. Its only about 20 m, but it seems to make a lot of difference to the viability of the remaining forest patches. No such law in Indonesia, however.

Registered on October 18, 2007, 6 Posts, 14 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on August 10, 2011 at 9:34 PM

I like the composition very much. Neat looking frog, his black eye works with the black background.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on August 11, 2011 at 8:19 AM

HI Adam,

Well, I'll be disappointed if this one doesn't show up in a field guide! Sounds like you had quite the excursion...I'm envious!

While I'm not always a fan of wildlife shots that are fully (or almost fully) illuminated by flash, I quite like this one. One thing I would suggest (if you're into and OK with making selective modifications to an image) would be to pull back the exposure on the trunk the frog is on. I think it's a tad on the bright side and doing this would draw even more attention to the subject. I'm not talking about a drastic change - maybe 1/2 stop or so...

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on August 13, 2011 at 12:09 AM

Great shot , I agree about the bark being just a little bright but this inevitable given the necessary use of flash.
Can I just add the need for soap that leavesour skin "softer" ia a large price to pay for the slow and inevitable destruction of these forests, what a greedy lot we all are

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments