Alien !! + setup pic

Palmate Newt in suspended animation mode.
For interest really. Ciontinueing with the newt work I put various weed in large tanks, photographed them and am trying them as back drops. This was a test. I use small home made tanks about 10 inches wide and high and about two inches back to front. I have various sizes and some are made using rubber tube for the small stuff. Whilst trying this out last night my little fried here hung in the water watching me. Quite nice I thought. I shall call him UKET
D7000
Sigma 18-50mm
No1 close up
ISO 200 f18
flash off camera.
Levels etc paint shop pro
70% of full frame.
Cheers
JR
Thanks for your interest in the previous.

Love it John.... superb....

This is excellent John and I like your last one too. I must have a go at some aquatic stuff one day.

Matt

Thanks both. Just about got enough for a Nikor 40mm macro which might make things easier. I have the sigma 50 mm macro but it doesn't work with the D7000.
As a matter of interest the newt can hold its position in the water by regulating the amount of air it takes in (or lets out )
Cheersjr

Great shot John, makes me want to try this myself

Oscar

Superb shot JR as always! I think it would make a great kiddies cartoon character...UKET may not catch on though!

Nick.

Thanks Nick
(Thought you might have gone off me re the wood pile pic !)
Oscar -want any help -drop an E mail.
JR

Not me JR .......we all have our own tastes and IMHO its what makes this forum so interesting cos it would be pretty boring if we all thought the same.

Nick.

Really impressed with this one John, especially that depth of field with the subject sharp from the nose through to the tail filament. Impressive stuff.

David

I really like this! The colour and your background work well together. I liked your other one, too. Any chance you would share your background technique?

Thanks
Eleanor I will try and explain. I use an old aquarium about two feet long. Put it some where outside in a convienient place- preferably not in full sun.. Get a piece of glass the length of the tank so that you can put it in on the angle and then straighten it up to go parallell with the front. I hold it in place with two small strips of wood. Put the glass about two inches back from the front glass. Fill the tank with rain water (no bubbles then ! ) and let it settle. I then use weed arranged in the narrow section. I like blanket weed as you can arrange it in nice clumps. You can also put some in the back section too. You can use a card background behind the tank with some paler colours on like blue. All you do now is simply photograph the whole thing with a normal lens. Try various degrees of out of focus or you can blurr it later on the computer.
You can print it and try different degrees of light and darkness. Just play around!
I then finally use the printouts as backdrops behind my smaller specialist tanks..
Hope that helps.
Here's a pic of the final setup, but just after I had dropped my flash as you can see, which is now very poorly !(In the bin ! )
JR
Hope that helps

Thanks for sharing JR.......still takes skill to produce those images.

Nick.

Good to see set up, cracking shot, unbelievably sweet subject!!!

Love it John, and great 'set up' that really has produced the goods

Excellent work John. Thanks for sharing the background to this image as well. Very informative.

Cheers

Austin

Looks like The Creature from the Black Lagoon originally shot in 3D.

http://www.hollywoodteenmovies.com/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon.html

Is there a 3D version of your 'monster', John?

Many thanks, John. I missed your answer with your set-up. Maybe I'm losing more than my physical capabilities!