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Warty little friend


Warty little friend
Photo Information
Copyright: Pieter van der Horst (sAner) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1490 W: 72 N: 1427] (4744)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2005-08-21
Categories: Amphibians
Camera: Canon EOS 350D, Sigma AF 100-300/f4.0 EX APO, B+W 82mm UV-HAZE
Exposure: f/8, 1/640 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2005-09-05 13:00
Viewed: 2066
Points: 52
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
When my girlfriend and I visited Oostvaardersplassen in Flevoland we encountered this lovely Toad. Quickly I lay flat down on my belly and took this picture.

Oostvaardersplassen is a vast area, consisting partly of swamps. Large parts of the Netherlands used to look like Oostvaardersplassen about 100 a 200 years ago.

From Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia.

The true toads are amphibians in the Bufonidae family. A number of species in other families of Amphibia are commonly referred to as toads. This is because the characteristics that are popularly used to distinguish frogs from toads are not quite the same as those used for scientific classification.

The type species of the family Bufonidae is the Common toad, Bufo bufo, and around it cluster a large number of species of the same genus, and some smaller genera. B. bufo is a tailless amphibian of stout build, with a warty skin, and any animal that shares these characteristics is liable to be called a toad, regardless of its location in formal taxonomy.

The life cycle of a toad involves several stages. Typically adult toads gather in suitable pools, the first to arrive usually being the males. Their croaking may well encourage the females to arrive. A female would wish to avoid arriving at a pond which did not have any males in attendance. Gravid female toads are actively and persistently sought out by males and many males will often try to attach themselves to a single female. This can result in very large masses of toads all clinging to each other with one female at the centre. Such agglomerations of toads can be the size of a soccer ball. Eventually one male will secure solitary possession. Amplexus is the process wherein the male grasps the female while she lays her eggs. At the same time, he fertilizes them with a fluid containing sperm. The dark brown eggs are about 2.0 to 2.8 millimetres in diameter and are covered in an outer shell of gelatinous transparent aterioal which swells in contact with water. The eggs, known as toadspawn hatch into tadpoles or toadpoles. Toads lay their eggs in long strings, forming double files in straight, jelly-like tubes. Typically, tadpoles are herbivores, feeding mostly on algae, whereas juvenile and adult toads are carnivores. Most toads eat worms, insects and a range of small invertebrates. The majority of their diet is of terrestrial origin. They hunt mostly at night.

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You may hit me as hard as you can! Seriously; just write what you think, positive or negative. I can use the lesson and I can really take the criticism. Thank you very much for taking the time to look at and criticize my photo. It is highly appreciated!

Shutter Speed: 1/640
F-stop: f/8.0
Focal length: 300mm
ISO Speed: 400
White Balance Mode: Daylight
AF Mode: AI Focus AF
Weather Condition: Clear & Sunny
Time: 13:03:54
Tripod: no
Flash: no
liquidsunshine, Signal-Womb, halki, annagrace, ellis49, marhowie, Janice, chiliu, dew77, thistle, Comandante, TAZ, slrnovice2, Luc, pompey, PDP has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Fisher: ;)sAner 4 09-07 12:37
To liquidsunshine: Thanks for the wssAner 1 09-05 14:27
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Critiques [Translate]

Hi Pieter,
A good picture of this Toad !
Colors and light are very good.
Thank you for the note.
Nico.

Well captured Pieter,
Nice low POV. Good detail and colour. Good DOF and sharpness.
I've been playing around quite a bit on photoshop over the last few weeks, and have done a quick WS, hope you don't mind.
Thanks for posting, have a great week.

Good capture Pieter, the light coming from the right has revealed great texture and details on the frog. Composition is good also. I think this is a v good shot- short of superb only for the vegetation on the left which I find just a little distracting. 6/10 Well done.

  • Great 
  • halki Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 249 W: 8 N: 105] (469)
  • [2005-09-05 15:28]

Hello Pieter!
Very nice capture!Dof,Pov, details and light are great.
Thanks for posting...

Wow, toad orgies, who knew?? LOL!!!

Fabulous capture, Pieter. Your POV is fantastic. I love the off-center composition and your sharpness is spot-on. Great note too.

Have a great week!

Alli

Very nice shot. Pieter.
Good POV, I like the low angle.
Maybe a little soft. Well composed, nice colours and good light.
WEll done, my friend.

Hello Pieter, Very good sharpness, details, colors & light here..Very well composed with a great POV & neutral OOF BG also. Excellent note - No nits, Well done!

Hi Pieter... great capture of this little fellow. The bumpy texture is wonderful. Lighting is very good and the DOF is right on. I like the extra space in the top of the composition. Very nicely done :-)

  • Great 
  • jossim Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1575 W: 5 N: 2181] (12250)
  • [2005-09-05 20:06]

Belle composition, le Bg est parfait et fait bien ressortire le sujet. Les couleurs et la netteté sont extra.

Félicitations !

  • Great 
  • optic Gold Star Critiquer [C: 322 W: 0 N: 0] (0)
  • [2005-09-05 22:21]

Hello Pieter Welcome back! you did a great capture, what a nice pose on this toad i like the razorsharp details & colours, pov & dof are great blurred background...Superb !

TFS & have a nice week,
Regards,
Christian

  • Great 
  • Janice Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3315 W: 148 N: 6113] (18648)
  • [2005-09-06 0:15]

You know Pieter, if you had kissed it, it would have turned into Prince!
He is very warty, but looks good in the light. Maybe a little more sharpening as it is a tad soft. But very good POV, well shown, thank you.

wel pieter.
Ik zal je eens kritisch de foto benaderen.
de compositie is zeer goed genomen, de schaduw partij rond het oog vind ik zeer jammer, had volgens mij met een invul flits opgelost kunnen worden. De dof is bijzonder goed. Met de complete note een uitstekend werk.
gr. Jaap

Hi Pieter,
Good shot!
Excellent composition, great POV, very nice background.
TFS!

  • Great 
  • dew77 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 4774 W: 294 N: 4020] (13209)
  • [2005-09-06 4:38]

Hello Pieter!
Very nice capture.POV,lighting,sharpness,clear details,blurred BG and composition are wonderful.Maybe it would be better if you darkened this image about %15.Excellent work!
TFS...:-)

Superb shot Pieter!
POV, composition and lighting are perfect.
DOF seems to be perfect too. It gives nice depth to the whole.
The photo is very clear and has great, very natural colours.
I like it very much.
VERY WELL DONE & TFS

Great shot Pieter. The composition is obviously the key to this shot success, its perfect and yet it allows plenty of detail on th etoad itself. Well done.

  • Great 
  • livios Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2156 W: 322 N: 4258] (16906)
  • [2005-09-06 13:04]

Pieter, I do enjoy pov and composition. The blurred and greenish bg highlights the frog.

A lovely image with pleasant colors. I also enjoyed Alan's workshop, although I agree with you about a little bit of oversharpness in his workshop.

Hi Pieter,
Excellent shot and well done on the composition.
The w.s. improved the shot. focus a little soft, what's that in front to back, a monitor lizard? A little distracting.
Excellent work.

Mike

Great photo, and a beautifull bokeh in the background. I would have liked the rock to be sharp as well, the grass(?) in front of it makes the rock a bit blurry now. Apart from that, very well done!

Hello Pieter!
Perfect capture.Colors,POV,lighting,sharpness,details and composition are wonderful.Thanks for sharing.

  • Great 
  • TAZ Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2241 W: 47 N: 3167] (10926)
  • [2005-09-08 13:04]

This frog is funny with its red points on skin. I like its pose. The well managed DOF gives a soft background. Good details and colors. Thanks for sharing Pieter.

Pieter, you are a master of DOF, that is obvious from your images. I love your BGs and sharp, detailed subjects. Your images ooze quality. Perfectly lovely composition on this one too. Am I hitting you as hard as I can? Yes! Wish I had this kind of quality to hand in my shots :)

  • Great 
  • Luc Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1873 W: 304 N: 4300] (14729)
  • [2005-10-15 23:58]

Personal assessment of the photo: very good.
Power of evocation in me: very strong.
Strong visual impact.
Aptness of the photo for the site: excellent.
Personal assessment of the note: complete as usual.
Thank you Pieter. Great work!

  • Great 
  • pompey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 146 W: 4 N: 745] (2768)
  • [2005-10-25 17:15]

Great shot Pieter, lovely crisp image with a great OOF background.
Excellent note as usual.
TFS.
Michael.

  • Great 
  • PDP Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor [C: 2821 W: 344 N: 3779] (11769)
  • [2006-02-16 17:21]

Hello Pieter, this is another nice shot of this toad. I like toads, I think they have a little more character than frogs and I like the way they walk. Nicely composed shot, well done.

Perfect composition and great blurred background. DOF is quite shallow for F/8, I assume you were pretty close.

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