Techniques:

When i first arrive at a pond i get down on my knees and and i scan the surface of the water to spot the frogs hiding in the vegetation, often there is one or more frog close to me that i didn’t saw right away.

Here is an example of a frog that was hiding in the vegetation just at my feet, i had to use my camera handheld to get as close to the water as possible. Pentax K20D, Pentax DFA100mm Macro WR.

Now that i found them i look at my options, if the frog that is farther on the pond offers the best composition i will use my 400mm with extension tubes (if necessary) to get the shot. It’s easier to use a long lens since you don’t have to get as close to the frogs, some will be more tolerant to you and your camera, green frogs and Bullfrogs are quite tolerant in general while Leopard frogs are harder to get close… habitually they just jump away, you just have to be patient and find the right one. When they jump into the water for safety frogs will often came out approximately in the same place, if you wait a little they will came back.

Getting low and moving slowly is the way to go if you want to get close to a frog with shorter lenses, especially if you want to photograph them with a wide angle lens. Even if you’re using a 100mm Macro lens and you want to fill most of the frame with a frog you will need to be quite close. I tried AF and MF and i prefer MF to get accurate focus on the eyes, because they have big eyes the AF target can miss the appropriate part that you want to be sharp on your final photo. Now i have a Pentax K-01 which is a mirrorless camera with a great focus peaking feature that make getting the exact focus very easy and i also can get shots that i was not able to get with a DSLR because i don’t need to look in a viewfinder now.

This shot was made easier because i was using the Pentax K-01 (a mirrorless camera) which have a great focus peaking feature to help manual focusing. Since i didn’t need to look in a VF i was able to take this photo at arms length just above the water surface, the Shake Reduction made it easy to have a sharp shot. Having the right tools  for the job makes it fun and easier. BTW you can see that the frog have a little friend on her nose.  Pentax K-01 with Pentax DFA 100mm Macro WR.

Composition and the light:

Frogs live in wet environment here in Canada, so most of your frogs photos will have water in it. The classic composition is a frog head coming out of the water, there is nothing wrong with that. The best way is to get as close as possible to the water level to have a frog’s view, if you can have reflection of a colorful background it will help, in that position you will see those big eyes reflected on the water surface.

Variation in your portfolio is a good idea, try different view and lenses to give dynamism to your shots.

Like this shot here, i took it from above and only one side to create a different view and showing the frog from another angle. Pentax K-01 with Pentax DFA 100mm Macro WR.

When i can i will use a wide angle lens to show the frog in it’s habitat, it’s not easy to do because you have to be very close to the frog, i’m using a 14mm lens on APS-C cameras, so the front of the lens is nearly touching my subject! I’m trying this only when i see that a frog is very tolerant to my presence and that she will accept me to get so close.

In that shot i was able to get close to those frogs (they were at least 6 close to me ), by using my 14mm i can show them in their habitat. Pentax K20D with Pentax DA14mm.

I also like to go to different ponds where i can found other species, i have two places where there is a lot of green frogs and even Bullfrogs, i also go to a beaver’s pond where there is Leopard frogs, Spring peeper frogs and Gray Tree frogs that can be photograph on the land and tree (except the Leopard frog) which makes a variety from the shots of frogs in the water.

Above is a shot of a Gray tree frog, they are so fun to photograph because they can take different positions and move in their environment, it gives you great photo opportunities. Pentax K20D with Pentax DFA100mm Macro WR.

Green frog and Bullfrog are often found in the water or close to it so they can jump in the water for safety. Gray tree frog, spring peeper frog and Leopard frog can be found close to water but also farther away, they don’t necessarily jump immediately for safety. The Leopard frog is very quick and try to hide in the vegetation and can also jump in the water while the tree frog will climb in a tree but i found them quite tolerant in general.

In the forest you can also find the Wood frog and the American toad (this one lives in a variety of habitat), they can be hard to spot because they can be very well camouflaged if they don’t move. The toads are not very fast, when they try to escape i just put my hand in front of them and they stop , then i have time to take some photos.

This young toad above was taken on the sandy shore of a pond, he is quite small, i braced my lens on a bean bag on the ground to get to it’s level. Pentax K20D with Pentax DFA100mm Macro WR.

Since i prefer to photograph frogs early or late in the day, then the light on my subjects is often flat, it’s good because it shows all the details of the frogs. But it’s also good to have some frogs lit by the sun, the frogs skin can be very reflective and it can be hard to have a great photo when the sun hits them directly because of the high contrast. Having a soft directional light is more effective and less contrasty, so if you can have that in your shot it will improve it without blown out highlights.

Equipment:

You will need rubber boots with rain gear or waders to get down and stay dry in the wet and muddy shores of the ponds, because you will get wet and dirty. If you want to get close to the ground with your equipment a tripod that can get low or a bean bag will be helpful, i also use swimming aids for kids that i can inflate to the right firmness to support my lens.

As for the lenses, i have used lenses from 14mm up to my 400mm to get photos, just use the one that you need to do the job. Like i said earlier, i now also have a Pentax K-01 that is great for shooting at ground or water level with it’s big LCD, live view and focus peaking feature. Having a stabilized lens or in-body stabilization is very helpful when you need to handheld your camera, it’s a feature that i really like now as well as the high ISO performance of the newer camera.

Hope you will appreciate the frogs and give it a try at photographing them, they are very important and they are in danger as well as their habitats, so we have to protect them.

You will see that i use my thumb instead of my finger to press the shutter release button, it’s the best way to do it, i tried with my finger but from this position it’s not comfortable and not as steady.

Sorry for the model in the video, Brad Pitt was not available

By chance i had a fresh haircut last night and i’m also freshly shaved from this morning…. i’m at my best !

Here is the video:

K01 viewing

Here is the photo i took in the video, more of a snapshot than a real photo.

K-01 with DA35mm Macro Limited, ISO 800, 1/200 sec.at f/6.3, with SR.

Here is another shot i took this week using the same combo and technique:

All photos on my site are copyrighted, property of Steeve Marcoux.

It’s not always easy to show an animal in it’s habitat, often there is distracting elements that you can’t crop from your composition.

In this shot the Great Blue Heron was at the base of a waterfal that is not natural. I was able to frame the heron against the waterfal and still show the heron in this particular environment without showing the artificial construction. I could have gotten closer but i would have lost the background and it would have been “yet” another Great Blue Heron portrait. Sony NEX-3, Pentax-67 M*400mm/4.

It’s more like taking a landscape photo but with an animal in your composition, so you need the same thing as a landscape photo: good composition, beautiful light certainly helps and an interesting landscape or atmosphere. The rule of thirds is still a valuable starting point, placing the animal at one of the crossing points makes for a dynamic photo, if necessary you can place the animal elsewhere in the frame if it makes for an even stronger composition.

This photo was already posted here on my Blog but i think it shows what i mean about showing an animal in it’s habitat. Those Canada Geese stayed very late at that place, they left when they had no more place to go  on that pond (free water), so even in december you can have great opportunities to show how an animal can survive in their habitat even if it gets cold. Pentax K20D, Pentax-67 M*400mm/4.

Don’t forget the small animals that can be found at your feet, i like to use my 14mm lens at or near it’s minimum focusing distance and show a frog, snail or insect in it’s habitat. Unfortunately not all wide angle lens can focus very close, especially zoom lenses where the minimum focusing distance is often not as close as a prime wide angle lens.

This close-up of a Snail on Stone crop and moss is interesting because we can see the details and textures of the animal but doesn’t show too much of the snail environment . It was taken on a rainy morning around sunrise. Pentax K20D, Pentax DFA 100mm Macro WR.

This one was taken on another morning but close to where the shot above was captured. Here i took the photo with my Pentax DA14mm which can focus very close for such a wide angle (0.17 meter and a repro ration of 0.19x), which is very useful to take the kind of shot like this one. With such a wide angle i was able to show the snail environment and create a dynamic photo, the snail looks like is following the rock path along the water to go back in the vegetation in the background . Pentax K-01, Pentax DA 14mm, at f/8, handheld, SR (Shake Reduction) activated.

Next time you will go hunting wildlife with your camera,  keep in mind to also capture them with a wider perspective, showing the animal in it’s habitat can give viewers another experience when looking at your images.

On our way back home we saw 2 Barred Owl in flight, they flew just in front of my truck, we got a good view of them!

Here are my resulting shots all taken with my Pentax K20D and Pentax-67 M*400mm/4:

Yesterday morning i found 4 Greater Yellowlegs on the shore of a big river near my home, so i decided to use my K-01 instead  of my K20D. The positive part is that you now have a 3 inches viewfinder to focus and compose your shot with focus peaking to help manually focus your shots. The focus peaking is very accurate and if you need more precision you can always magnify the view to 2X, 4X or 6X.

The biggest drawbacks of the K-01 is the 1 fps in RAW and the image freezes between each shot so when your subject moves you can loose it on the LCD. That camera was not designed for fast action obviously but maybe the next K-02?

IQ is great and the performance of high ISO is better than my K20D is a plus for the K-01…sure i could have buy a K-5 but the K-01 is a great Macro camera and i think it’s where it is the best camera i have ever use for that purpose.

My Pentax-67 M*400mm/4 is an 8.3 pounds beast and i think it requires a camera that is bigger than the K-01 for the best handling, my K20D is a perfect match, sure i will use my K-01 again with that lens mostly for photographing frogs when they will come out for good. The K-01 might be easier to use for bird photography with the DA*300mm/4 or the FA* 400mm/5.6, on a tripod of course, i always prefer a good tripod.

Here is my shots i took with the K-01 all at ISO 1000, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, tripod.

Greater Yellowlegs

Canada Goose

You will need a tripod but also something that you can use to stabilize your camera at ground level (beanbag, or a ziploc filled with sand), my camera have Shake Reduction (SR) and it’s very helpful for this kind of photography. Now with my K-01 it’s easier to shoot at ground level since i don’t need to look in the viewfinder like my K20D, the live view and focus peaking work very well to compose and focus the shot. A camera with a tilting or swivel LCD would be even easier to use, but the K-01 is still quite easy to use at ground level.

You will need a relatively fast shutter speed….. yes i’m serious …. those snails are always on the move and the antenna (eyes) are nearly always moving. Having the eyes, head and shell in relatively the same plane of focus is not evident since they move their eyes in many directions very often. Flash can help to obtain better light and/or faster shutter speed, i prefer to use natural light.

Most of my photos are done at/or near ground level but don’t forget to look in the trees because they are often hanging on the branches or leaves. Vary your point of view and habitat if possible,  so not all your shots will look the same.

Snail at sunrise in autumn light.

Surrounded by Stone crop flowers.

Young Snail on a weed.

All 3 shots above taken with Pentax K20D, Pentax DFA100mm Macro WR, tripod.

The most useful lens is a Macro lens, the majority of my snails photos are taken with my 100mm Macro because snails are quite small and to better control the background. If i can i will use my 35mm Macro and 14mm to show more of the habitat. My Pentax DA14mm can focus quite close so i’m able to get the snails large enough in the frame and still have place to show it’s environment. You have to be careful with that 14mm since you will be shooting at it’s minimum focusing distance (17 cm) you can cast a shadow with the camera or your head on the subject.

Snail on an Aspen tree after the rain.

Pentax K20D, Pentax DA14mm, handheld with SR, ISO 800, 1/15 sec. at f/11.

Pentax K-01, DFA 100mm Macro WR, ISO 1000, 1/80 sec. at f/6.3, handheld with SR.

I wanted a second camera body with very good image quality, with good live view and not too big, Shake Reduction (SR) is a very welcome addition and didn’t necessarily needed an EVF/OVF. Sure it’s bigger than any other APS-C  MLC but it’s still smaller than a DSLR and because of it’s shape it’s easier to find a place for it in a camera bag than a DSLR. I have my Pentax DA35mm Macro Limited attached to the K-01 and it fit nicely in a section of my bag.

Here are my first impressions so far.

Ground level photography.

I tried some handheld shots at ground level, with the help of SR it performed very well and getting sharp photos was easier than i thought it would be. Since you can’t hold it as steady as a DSLR because you’re not looking in a viewfinder and can’t brace the camera on your forehead, you learn to hold it differently. When i’m taking photos at ground level i can view the image and focus on the LCD from an angle of 45° from above the camera and press the shutter button with my thumb instead of my finger, seems to work fine for me. An advantage of a MLC is that it’s not as hard on your body (back and neck) since you don’t have to contort yourself as much to compose your shot, like trying to see something in the VF of my K20D while photographing frogs at eye level on the shore of the pond.

Here is 2 photos taken handheld with the DA14mm:

DA14mm, ISO 400, 1/25 sec at f/8.0

DA14mm, ISO 500, 1/20 sec. at f/7.1

Powerful Macro tool.

One of the reason i bought the K-01 was that i wanted a camera that would help me with manual focus, the live view and focus peaking were a big selling point for me. I shoot a lot of close-up and Macro and always use manual focus. When you combine a great sensor with very good focus peaking,  you get a camera that is great for Macro photography. Taking Macro shots at ground level will be easier, as discussed in the previous paragraph. Can’t wait to try out some frogs photos with my Macro and DA14 lenses.

DFA100mm Macro WR, ISO 160, 1/100 sec. at f/6.3, tripod.

DFA100mm Macro WR, ISO 200, 1/80 sec. at f/4.5, tripod.

With long lenses, i think i’m crazy !

One thing i wanted to try was how it handles with long lenses, because of it’s better high ISO performance than my K20D i want to use it for photographing frogs using my Pentax-67 M*400mm/4 with extension tubes. The K-01 is bigger and have a better grip than other MLC so it’s not that bad on my 400mm, i can use it with good results, my hands don’t suffer from trying too hold and maneuver the gear on my tripod. If needed i will not hesitate to use my K-01 with long lenses.

That shot was taken around sunrise in a forest of Pine, this Cottontail Rabbit was relaxing under a big Pine. The good performance at high ISO and the focus peaking made that photo easy to get.

Pentax-67 M*400mm/4, ISO 1250, 1/80 sec. at f/5.6, tripod.

Focus peaking:

This is one of the reason i bought the K-01, combine with the magnification (up to 6X), it makes obtaining exact focus easier especially with manual focus lenses. I selected the red button (customization menu) for turning On and Off the focus peaking, it’s useful to be able to turn it off quickly because sometimes the peaking makes it hard to compose your shots. Even without the magnification the peaking is accurate and i like using it that way when i’m taking photos handheld at ground level. If you want to see how it works you can take a look at my other post here:

http://steevemarcoux2.com/2012/04/07/peaking-feature-k-01-vs-nex-3/

What i like about the K-01:

- The buttons and wheels are well made with firm clicks and feel.

- The shutter is very quiet, the first time i tried the K-01 in the field it was windy and i couldn’t hear the shutter.

- Focus peaking is great and accurate.

- Battery life is also very good, i made over 450 photos and some videos as well as playing around with the camera on the first charge.

- Built quality is also very good and i like the feeling of the camera in my hand, i don’t have problem with the layout of the controls.

- Shake Reduction is very good.

What i don’t like about the K-01:

- 1 Fps in RAW is my biggest negative point on the K-01, hope Pentax will address that in a future firmware update.

- Rubber door flap of the SD card compartment. I learned to close it with relative ease but my concern is more if it will survive in the long term ?

- AF is not the fastest but i don’t use it often anyway.

Conclusion:

If i had to own only 1 camera the K-01 wouldn’t be my choice because i need a DSLR with a faster motor drive and a VF for wildlife photography. But as a second camera body i think it’s a great value for any photographer who want a MLC or a smaller camera than a DSLR with great built quality and with focus peaking,  you can’t go wrong…. and the IQ is superb!

About high ISO i can say that i like the results up to 1250 ISO, i did try it enough above that to make a conclusion how high the quality is good enough for my taste. Will make another post here when i will have more shots under my belt with the K-01.

Time will tell if Pentax made a mistake or not by coming out with the K-01, it is certainly a camera that is already controversial, it’s not for everyone, but i like that Pentax made that move since the market is already full of tiny MLC that or not always easy to use other than with small lenses.

Pentax K-01:

- Grey peaking without any settings for level of peaking and no color choices.

- Peaking can be turn on and off easily by pushing red button (i selected the red button in the customization menu).

- You can magnify by  zooming up to 6X (2X, 4X and 6X) to focus more accurately.

Sony NEX-3:

- Choice of 3 colors (red, yellow and white) with strengths level.

- Peaking can be turn off and on but you have to go in the Menu which is not very fast.

- You can magnify the view to 7X or 14X, i use 7X only.

On my NEX-3 most of the time i use the yellow peaking but sometimes depending on the color of my subject i use the red. Up to now both work pretty well, Pentax took a different approach in the color and effect but it seems to do the job, i tried it with some of my lenses and i’m satisfied.

The best way to do it is by showing you, so i made a video of how the K-01 and NEX-3 peaking feature work in the field.

K-01

k01

NEX-3

nex3

In early february i received an e-mail from the editor that they wanted to feature me in the next publication in that column. I was surprised and honored that they had chosen me ! If you want to read the article you can get a copy of the magazine or go to their web site.

http://www.outdoorphotographycanada.com/article/are-you-best-or-best-kept-secret-full-story-click-here-0#comment-

They certainly make a great subject for the wildlife photographer because you can take photos of them in different environments as well as in flight, you can take them in couple or when they all eat in the fields of the local farmers.  They have a personality that i like, but they can be very aggressive between each others.

The more you photograph them the more you learn their body language and can anticipate their next move. When they swing their beak up and down and you hear their  “Honk … Honk … Honk”, you can be sure they are ready to take off,  so be ready. In autumn during the hunting season it can be difficult to get close to them, a hide might be your best bet. I found them easier to get close during the spring migration in my region.

Seeing those big birds flying over me and hearing the sound of their wings and their “Honk” as they pass by me is always an experience that i will remember all my life! I hope that i will be able to enjoy photographing them and share the Canada Geese migrations with my kids for many more years to come.