are right - glad I didn't miss looking.

....i'm not a professional photographer....i get a lucky shot every now and then. my work is too clinical and lacks artistic style and because of this, i wouldn't even try to market myself as a pro....i've known this for years and i'm trying to develop some sort of style but i'm failing at that. without a style, i don't see how my work would be marketable. i think one other area where i am really lacking is post production...i've had no formal training in adobe tools or other digital imaging software and that is holding me back. i'm almost completely self taught (with help from youtube) but i'm going to take classes for that when time permits. my degree is in computer science but my minor was in photography and i had a lot of darkroom training....i don't miss those days and i'll never go back to film photography.

i have had moments of clarity, where i feel like i produced a work of art, but most of my stuff is purely documentary. here are a few shots that i feel had some artistic merit:

Go, frogs!

courting outside my bedroom window. He is very loud calling for females to come join him.

...and you'll have an idea what it's like at my house!

....the 3rd gladiator tree frog shot was a challenge and it was actually taken earlier than the other two....the other 2 are the same frog on the same leaf but shot hours later....i like the image quality and composition of the 3rd one except for these 2 things:

1. i cropped his toe at the top of the frame
2. i didn't get critical focus on the eye

the reason for both of these issues is that the wind was blowing and that heliconia leaf is like a sail in the wind. it was waving toward and away from me the entire time i was trying to shoot and because of this i didnt nail the focus perfectly on any of the early shots and his toe got cropped because i was already tight in on him as it was. nothing i can do about the toe, but if i email you the PSD file can you do your magic with topaz just on the eye and see what it looks like with some sharpening there?

the other two photos are better framed and i got the focus on the eye better because the wind had stopped blowing but he had shifted his position around and his right hand was in an unnatural position.....the digit pointing down is actually his "pinkie" and it's folded under his hand. most people probably wouldn't notice that but it sticks out like a sore thumb (no pun intended) to me.

I love all the nature shots you share with us. Thank you for sharing.

why some frogs are smiling?

It's because they get to eat what bugs them.


I love looking at frogs. They're so cute.

...sometimes, in photos, they look like a cartoon frog smirking or smiling.

Your frog photos are wonderful!

I miss our little west coast tree frog. Not many of those living in the Arizona desert! When we lived on the north coast we had an old redwood hot tub and every year a tree frog took up residence inside the water jet intake. The tub leaked slowly so the water intake was usually a few inches above the actual water level except when we refilled it. The tub was outside the bedroom window, so the frogs serenaded us nightly.

...spadefoot toads on the roads at night? there are some absolutely beautiful ones.

Now I'm going to have to start paying attention! I used to look for snakes that way.