[Dennis]

Originally Posted by Jeffkop

"Only when you can safely walk past the dragon ... Only then Grasshopper will you be ready for the next phase"
Great shots !!!!!

Thanks Jeff!

I remember the series Kung Fu with David Carradine very well indeed!

Originally Posted by Liz

Thanks for the warning Dennis, but I still had to look ....
but, well done!!

Thanks Liz!

I was in two minds about including the warning – it’s a bit like the “wet paint – don’t touch” signs; I am always compelled to touch!

Originally Posted by AlexN

Dennis. Fantastic images! Very sharp and detailed..
You have to love nature and wildlife!

Thanks Alex!

Observing these creatures, even for short periods of time, opens up a whole new world when you begin to see patterns in their behaviour and get a glimpse into their daily lives. This was quite an interesting, if hurried shoot!

The background is a 30 year old, weathered concrete path, pitted and aged by lichen, mould, etc and through the viewfinder, had the same tones as the skin of the reptile – almost perfect camouflage. The dull, flat lighting also made it difficult to separate the tones of the water dragon from the background tones.

In Photoshop, I tried to overcome this by selecting the reptile, then using a Layer to bump up the exposure for the lizard by +0.85 and another Layer to apply a Gaussian blur of 2 pixels to the aged concrete background. Blending these layers then provided more of a separation between the lizard and the background.

A nice ray of sunshine would have helped but alas, that didn’t arrive until after late morning!

Cheers

Dennis