Frog-Macro with Flash

I was in far north Queensland, Australia shooting for the magazine Asia Pacific Tropical Homes in 2004. I was photographing interiors and architecture of some of tropical Australia’s most distinct private villas.

I was lucky enough to be staying in one incredible villa situated back in a lush rainforest. At night, the sounds of the jungle were deafening. Insects, birds, bats and frogs all trying to outdo the other screaming into the darkness. I’m sure they had a purpose other than keeping me awake.

An amazing array of frogs would end up congregating on my patio on any given night. It was bizarre.
There were easily 15-20 frogs at any one time. Leopard frogs, tree frogs, toads, big, small, skinny, fat, slimy, colorful and camouflaged ones.

If I were to leave my door open only for a second, I would have to spend the next fifteen minutes chasing frogs out of my room. I learned to live with them for my three-week trip and eventually decided to shoot some macro shots of my housemates.

The frog pictured was sitting on the aluminum leg of a lounge chair.

Gear: Nikon D70 / Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro lens / Sb-28 speedlight w/ lumiquest bounce diffuser. The flash was off camera connected with a Nikon SC-28 sync cord.

Exposure: Manual Mode ISO 200 F11 1/125th / Manual flash exposure determined by test shots.

As always, click any image for the large version. TR