The Wood Frogs are mating (about two weeks later than usual) so my pond is very busy. Yesterday I counted up to 22 males calling and saw two females jump into the pond. How or if a female picks a particular male wasn’t clear to me… This view shows one male swimming into the outflow of the cascade. The frog is slightly soft, due to motion, but I like the mix of colors and movement.
Feedback Requests
The R5 focus tracking has a hard time in a busy setting like this, so it didn’t follow the frog’s head. The shutter speed might also be too slow to freeze the frog’s motion…maybe I’ll find that out, since the mating should continue for a few more days (weather permitting).
Pertinent Technical Details
R5, 100-500 @ 363, 1/640 s, f/11, iso 1600, tripod.
I sure love the color of the water he is swimming in, Mark. He’s not too soft, but not as sharp as I’m used to seeing your images be, Hope you do get some more chances. The R5 is a wonderful camera, but I have noticed the eyes on bugs and things like that it struggles to find.
Mark, the colorful scene works well in camouflaging the frog / toad. From this view it would seem this guy is using a standard breast stroke here?..
The slight frog softness does not bother me at all. Motion is almost impossible to eliminate with the all around movement of water and frog.
@Shirley_Freeman, I do have the focus set on eye recognition, but regularly see that fail if the eye is too small in the frame or too dark (and there may be other fail mechanisms). It’s clear that while eye recognition is useful, it has lots of room for improvement.
Mark: I think the softness of the frog is a non-issue and one has to look for it to really see it. The BG is simply wonderful and is the perfect complement, in fact for me the BG may be the true subject and the frog the complement. I find myself enjoying and exploring the water much more than the frog. Top notch shot. >=))>
Gorgeous and fun at the same time! He looks like he’s on a mission. Wonderful water and a great catch. Looks like focus liked the texture on the right leg but I don’t mind the slight softness of the rest. (Frogs are pretty soft anyway.) Hope we get to see more – what a great opportunity!
