Frogs in a soft box.

These photos, of little Froglets, only 12mm long and from my garden pond, were taken today in a soft-box. Thats a fish tank lined with white perspex and multiple flash guns are used to light the box and the subject. The flash creates a clean white background as well as highlighting the detail of the subject. I thinkit is a tremendously exciting way to photograph small wildlife, particularly fish, aquatic insects and amphibians. The subject seems to be suspended in mid-air but of course they are actually swimming.

Here, the little frog uses the floating leaf to support himself as he grabs a breath.

One of the interesting facts about the transformation of Tadpole to Frog, after of course the growth of legs, is the formation of lungs. Innitially the tadpoles breath with gills but near the end of the development in to frogs, lungs develop and the froglets breath air.

This is an interesting picture, it shows a tadpole, now almost a frog but still sporting the distinctive tadpole tail which is the only source of mobilty in the first stage of their life. After the legs are fully formed and the lungs developed the froglets climb out of the water and start the next stage of their life as a land animal, returning to the water to breed the following spring.

…….. and now a fully formed little frog. A massive contributor to the food chain, not only do they eat tiny insects they are predated by just about anything that can find them!