Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

It's been awhile since I posted a photo or anything else in this forum. My camera really isn't anything that special and I am FAR from a professional photographer so dont typically try to match up with anyone in here. However, I managed to get a pretty decent photo of a bearded dragon and thought I would ask your opinions on how I could have made this a better shot. I was actually pretty impressed with it, but feel that there could have been something to make it better. Any ideas, suggestions, comments, inquiries?

Thanks,

Chris

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U.A.P.P.E.A.L.
Uniting A Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League
www.uappeal.org

Steve and Tim are the resident experts on this forum, but I'll toss in my $.02 here.

One thing that will typically seperate a good photograph of an animal (or a person for that matter) from a great one will be the eyes. Try to get the eyes clearly visible in the shot. For (non-reptile) animal shots, getting a "catch light" or glimmer in the eyes will make a tremendous difference. this typically means shooting with the light behind you or slightly off to one side.

Hope this helps.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Chris,

I like the fact that you tried to frame your subject with the wood. A couple of things that might improve this shot would be -

1. Make sure we can see the whole animal (at least the front part). The fact that the branch obscures part of the interesting part of the animal makes it a tad less appealing.

2. Try decreasing the depth of field with shots like this. The wood works better as a frame if it is slightly out of focus. Decrease the f/stop setting on your camera when you take shots like this in the future. That will help the subject (the BD) pop out even more.

Most of all, figure out what YOU like and dislike about the photo, how you achieved those things and how to fix/repeat those things in future shots. Every shot is a learning experience on the road to better photography, even your 50,000th shot.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas