eRodent > The Garden Pond Page > April 2002.


March 2008 Photos of Tadpoles and Frogs with new Nikon D8 Camera.


There are more tadpole photos available from earlier year's pages.

I've bought myself a new camera - a Nikon D80 SLR with a 18-200mm VR Lens. All the photos on the other pages (with the exception of building the pond which were taken with a truly ancient camera) were taken with a Sony DSC-F707 which was a truly amazing bit of kit for it's time but is now a bit long in the tooth.

It took me a while to get the hang of a proper SLR - I was used to point and shoot and also being able to hold the camera at ground level and see what I was doing with the aid of the F707s tilting body and live view. They are starting to produce SLRs with liveview now and it is also possible to buy something called a ZigView but that will have to wait until I have some more pennies. Anyhow this isn't really a photography site. If you want to learn some more I would recommend the books Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and Digital Macro Photography by Ross Hodinott and Practical Photography magazine.

The other scary thing about true SLR photography is the truly scary cost of the lenses. I've recently bought a 18-200mm VR (vibration reduction) lens for as much as you'd pay for a D80 body. I have considered saving up the 500 quid for a 105mm VR macro lens but at present I really don't have the cash and I'm also concerned about changing lenses in the field and getting crap on my sensor. To be honest by the time I've done it what I'm photographing will be long gone. So I've compromised with a Macro Filter which is basically a blooming great magnifying glass that you stick on the end of your lens. If anyone's interested it's a Marumi Achromat Macro +5 which I bought from an eBay shop for about 70 quid. It has it's problems - notably the lens will only focus at a fixed distance from the subject, but you can get some nice stuff if you are patient and don't mind sore knees and back from lying on the ground.


Frog/Tadpole

This photo was taken handheld by my husband. F.29 1/50second 80mm ISO-800, +0.3EV +5 Macro Filter



Frog/Tadpole

These two photos were taken by me handheld. I haven't got the settings as these are the cropped versions I did to send to someone and I haven't got time at the moment to find the originals to look at the properties. I'm not a huge fan of photoshop and like to get my photos right straight from the camera, but I may have tweaked the levels slightly in Photoshop Elements as they look a little contrasty.

Frog/Tadpole



Frog/Tadpole

Another one taken by my husband. The amazing thing about this photo, shown in the enlarged version below is the reflections in the eye of the clouds and the obelisk behind my husband. F/10 1/100sec ISO 800 +0.3EV 200mm



Frog/Tadpole



Frog/Tadpole

A set of three photos of this years indoor tadpoles. I call them my piranha-poles, because they do nothing but eat at this size. They are just starting to develop leg buds. There is no editing on these photos, which were taken using a tripod in the sunlight coming through the window. They reflect quite a gold colour and I wonder if it's the dye they put in the flaked fish food making them this colour as it does say on the packet that it brings out goldfish's colour. Doesn't seem to do them any harm though. The photos are slightly spoilt by flecks which are partially on the surface of the water/tank, but I also think there was a little dust on the lens. F5 70mm 1/100sec ISO 200 -0.3EV +5 Macro Filter



Frog/Tadpole

F5 28mm 1/100sec ISO 200 -0.3EV +5 Macro Filter



Frog/Tadpole

F5.3 28mm 1/60sec ISO 200 -0.3EV +5 Macro Filter




Frog/Tadpole

Can't resist a couple of bee photos. These were really tough to get as it was quite a windy day and the sun kept going in. It was early march, the skimmia was just coming out and the bees had taken the opportunity to collect some pellon - the wouldn't get out again for a couple of weeks as the early march gales started that evening. I had to wind the ISO right up to get the photos anything like sharp enough and it was a real fight between a large enough aperture to get enough light in and enough depth of field. I have two versions of the first photo and in the second the pollen sacs are sharp but the eye isn't in focus so I've chosen this one. Handheld F8 1/1000 ISO 400 -0.3EV +5 Macro Filter


Frog/Tadpole

Handheld F11 1/250 ISO 400 -0.3EV +5 Macro Filter


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