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.
The title says it all, but the markings of the gecko, and in particular its eyes, make this photo for me.
These two gold dust day geckos share the same expression as they gaze up at the interloper looking down at them. It’s not unusual for plants to harbor several geckos. Sometimes this results in turf wars, but mostly they seem to tolerate each other, once the pecking order has been established.
Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Creatures and Critters.’ See more responses here.
Gold dust day geckos are colorful little creatures and I look out for them on colorful plants such as bird of paradise flowers and pink bananas. They’re attracted to these, and other flowers, for the nectar within. This one spent a considerable time drinking from this pink banana.
Graham's Island 