Last month, I posted (here) a photo of a gold dust day gecko drinking from a bird of paradise flower. This photo, taken last week, is from that same clump of plants. This flower is past its prime, but the gecko has not yet reached adulthood and has already had at least one narrow escape judging by its missing tail. It kept its eyes on me, probably wondering if I represented another threat.
The tropical-looking bird of paradise plant (Strelitzia reginae) is actually a native of sub-tropical South Africa. But it certainly has the pizzazz of a tropical plant, especially when being visited by a colorful gold dust day gecko seeking to sup on the flower’s nectar.
Posted in response to Becky’s April Squares challenge theme of ‘Top.’ See more responses here.
Mourning geckos are predominately nocturnal, but this one was caught out in the daylight. As geckos tend to do, it froze in place in such a way that I pictured it thinking I’d said, ‘Up against the wall (bad word here).’
The gecko is a gold dust day gecko, originally from Madagascar, and the bromeliad is aechmea blanchetiana, originally from Brazil. I liked this scene for the strong color contrast.
These were seen at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.
When the morning sun hits, gold dust day geckos can often be seen soaking up the early rays to warm themselves for the day’s activities. Half a dozen of them were doing just that on this railing.
There is no Sunday Stills challenge this week (or next), but the theme was going to be ‘Something Red or Green or Both!’ so I thought I’d go with the photo I had picked out for that anyway.
So here’s a very green (with red markings) gold dust day gecko resting atop a very red torch ginger surrounded by green foliage. It looks like the gecko has been in the wars judging from the rings around its tail, which suggest it has lost it a few times. The most recent regrowth is the lower brown part, which will ultimately take on a matching green color once it’s fully grown.
I’m not sure how this papaya came to be abandoned on this step, but it got the attention of several gold dust day geckos, which are partial to a bit of fruit.
This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Photo Edits.’ See more responses here. The main photo edits I do are cropping and adjusting color and lighting, and these photos show the path to the final version (above).
My aim was to get a photo of a baby mourning gecko that was hanging onto a Christmas light, mostly for the warmth I suspect. The light was indifferent and I didn’t want to spook the gecko.
The original (bottom photo) is fairly blah with washed-out color and too much distraction around the gecko. In my first fix (below) I cropped the photo to get the focus on the gecko and light. I also did some adjustments to light and color. I like it better, but it still wasn’t working for me, so I set the photo aside.
When this challenge came up, I thought of this photo and had another go. I cropped the photo tighter still to fill the frame. Then I worked on the color and lighting. The result is an image with more ‘pop,’ much closer to what I was looking for. That’s a Christmas light and a thumbtack holding the wire in place, so these are little things, including the baby gecko, but they jump out of the photo. Also, the various lighting effects surrounding the Christmas light come to the fore, which I like.
Ironically, the first photo I thought of for this challenge was a fish, which I thought I must have cropped quite a bit to get the final image, but when I checked the original image I found I’d done virtually nothing to it. I’m posting that photo tomorrow in response to the next Sunday Stills challenge.
Also posted in response to this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #66: Filling the Frame.
