Tiny Frogs Return
Such a long time since I posted anything, but a good way to begin again is with a favourite subject – some images of Litoria ewingii, Southern Brown Tree Frogs, sitting on Hydrangea leaves just outside my back door in the rain.
These are tiny creatures, less than 2 cms in length, and young ones hatched this season. The fly just happened to be sitting there………
Litoria ewingii – Brown Tree Frogs
When down by the lake in search of emerging dragonflies early one morning, I discovered the water reeds were full of these gorgeous little frogs – Litoria ewingii, who come in a variety of colours, and are rarely over 3 cms long. I love them! By the time the sun is coming over the trees and it begins to warm up, they are gone, hiding in the grasses and reeds on ground level.
Click on any image for a larger view.
Little Froggies…….Littoria ewingii
There are several species of small frog that live around the garden and by my lake. At night the calls are deafening, and I often find them in the grass or garden when working outside. These however, live in the Hydrangeas which are just outside my back door. They pretty much vanish through the winter, but at this time of year there are many young ones to be found amongst the leaves. They are Littoria ewingii or Southern Brown Tree Frogs and the adults only reach about 45mm in size. These ones are tiny, about the size of a finger nail, and to give you an idea, one in the photos below, is sitting on the underside of my little finger. As usual, click on an individual photo to enlarge it.
Local Frogs
With Spring approaching plus endless rain, the local frog population is very vocal, and one can hear them in most parts of this large garden. I often find them when weeding or doing other things in the garden, and will sometimes capture them for a short while, take some photos and then release again where they were found. Here are a couple of my recent finds – they are all very small.
The one on the right is the most common Litoria ewinii, the Southern Brown Tree Frog. As there is a huge variation in colour and markings in this species, the other smaller one may be the same, but I am not sure and cannot find a way of identifying it clearly from this source. It was very small, and was found buried rather than just under some leaf litter so could be something different as it also seemed to have a different shape. This is it sitting on my thumbnail.
Some others…
PS. Today ( 1/8/12) I received an answer from the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre, to whom I had sent the above photo in the hope they might identify this little dark frog for me. This is their response:-
This is probably either a Common Eastern Froglet (Crinia signifera) or an Eastern Sign-bearing Froglet (aka Beeping Froglet – Crinia parasignifera). These two froglets would probably be found in this area and they can really only be identified easily by their calls – the calls can be listened to on the MV website at http://museumvictoria.com.au/bioinformatics/frog/
So now we know!
Little Frog
There is a dearth of good photo subjects in my garden at the moment – it’s mid winter, cold, mostly wet, no flowers, few insects……but today I found a frog!
I think it is a Litoria ewingii, or Brown Tree Frog (despite finding it under a log) and it measured only about 3 cms from nose to tail. There are at least 36 different frogs listed as occurring in Victoria and many of them look similar, while even in their own species there can be a wide variation in colour and marking. There is an excellent key to identification of frogs here which I have checked, and I’m also going to try and get some external help from someone who is a froggy expert, so there may be more later.
P.S This is a quote from the advice I was given as to the identity of this frog – “the toe pads mean it can’t be anything but a tree frog and that means Litoria. The dark patch on the back makes it ewingii.” So it seems I was correct.
It’s nice to be shooting with my 100mm macro lens again!
Texture Tuesday – the Little Things Edition
Yes, I know it’s Wednesday ………but as I type it is still Tuesday in the US!
We were asked to use one of Kim’s textures……..Little Things. Today I have used this one, several others, and one of Kim’s brushes for the first time. Also a couple of quotations which seemed appropriate.
Macro photos from the archives.
The Story Edition – Texture Tuesday
Over at Beyond Layers we have been focusing on stories – our own, and photos that tell a story……
Kim asked us to use just six words to express our own story……an idea originally started here at Smith Magazine, where folk were asked to create a six word memoir some years ago for a short period, but it is still going strong. There are some amazing memoirs – funny, sad, deeply personal, confronting and just plain clever. Initially I thought I might not be able to do this, but it is truly addictive, I keep counting words, and I have written heaps, some of which I shall share below.
Once youthfully beautiful, now older wiser
Photo obsessed, happy snapping Canon girl
Promise I’ll stop procrastinating on Monday
Beyond Layers, Challenging creations, like-minded players
etc etc………try it yourself, it is quite thought provoking and fun.
We also had to post a photography with a story – this is mine.
Posting this for Texture Tuesday, Beyond Layers and the Creative Exchange.
New Beginnings…
I have signed up for a couple of online classes – both of which sound like fun, and hopefully I shall learn a lot.
The first is with Steve Sonheim and is called Photo Silly Light – I actually follow Carla Sonheim’s blog as I like her wimsical drawing style. I’d love to be able to draw as she does, but I can’t, but when I saw her husband was a photographer and offered classes, I investigated further and signed up for one over the next week. He writes, “This class is about looking at the world a little differently through your digital camera, and bringing more photography into your art, and more art into your photography.” Sounds like a challenge.
The second is with Kim Klassen, and is called Beyond Layers which will continue for a whole year………it will involve layers, textures, brushes, how to get a bit more from PSE techniques and weekly projects. I have done a couple of classes with Kim before, and use a lot of her free textures for her Texture Tuesdays, but this will be in addition to that. I hope I have not bitten off too much, and can stick with it. I’m not so much into cutesy images with motivational messages, but I’m sure I will find my own style. I shall be sharing my results for both classes here.
In the meantime, here are two images using her latest free texture called Embrace, posted for Texture Tuesday on 10th of January. Sorry, but I did not keep note of the blending mode or opacity.
