Regal Horned Lizard

A great species , very well depicted- Pose is very nice, and your composition choice is excellent- Maybe the fill-flash could be a tad more strong this time, to brighten a little more the face of the lizard, but I'm not expert at all about the use of flash (and the light conditions on that environment should be very tough indeed)- By the way, many thanks for your nice feedback on my last posted picture, I surely don't deserve your kind words- Best wishes, Fabio

Nice sharp details where it counts, great closeup comp & use of flash to fill in the shadows Tonia.
Interesting pose and POV also.
I have no problem with your lizard management program, as long as you do not harm it in any way.
Many people do it, most won't admit to it
Well done.

I really would not have known this was flashed, so that's a testament to how natural the lighting looks. Excellent pose and POV.

Very nice image. Well composed and the lighting looks very natural. As far as the set up is concerned. I have never done this with and animal, insect, reptile, etc. But I have removed unwanted weeds or leaves when shooting wildflowers or other stationary subjects. I think most of us at sometime or another adjust the circumstances of our "wild" pictures. A lot of insects in extreme macros are staged in a studio. This kind of a question can really open a can of worms for discussion. If this is ok, then why not change the behavior of birds or even animals to get an image. On this web site there have been some hot discussions on both sides of this issue. You will find strong opinions on this issue. I think it is in the realm of a personal moral issue. For instance, I would never go to a game farm to shoot an animal, while many photographers have no problem with this. As I was typing the last sentence I just thought I won't go to a game farm, but I will go to a butterfly conservatory and shoot, in reality, captive butterflies. I think all of us are purest is some ways on this issue and not such a purest in other ways. It has been interesting to watch the discussions on this subject in the past. Enough rambling on. Have a great day.

Thank you everyone for your comments! Richard, I appreciate your views on the subject. It does seem like there are a variety of opinions regarding manipulating a photographic situation/subject.

I really like this, great pose and pov. Like the details and I wouldn't have guessed this was flashed. As far as your lizard handling methods I think that as long as you let it go and it wasn't harmed there's nothing wrong. I've learned to overcome my natural inclination to stomp spiders and learned to move them as I have gotten more into macro. I always put them back where I found them when I'm done so I have no issues.