P#21: A Lizard Eye Becomes a Photo of a Dragon

The Right Place, The Right Time

Bryan Peterson: Let's talk about the lizard eye photo. The lizard eye is nothing else than just a cute story. It was taken with a macro lens in Singapore at an iguana park where you're allowed to go into an area where the iguanas are free to roam.

At this particular hour of the day, it was getting late so the lizards were anxiously putting themselves out on rocks and large limbs that allow them to soak up the last rays of light. They were not going anywhere. I've never seen more apathetic iguanas in my life.

I was able to find one particular iguana that was by the ground, about six inches up on a log. I scooted across this grass, not having ever shot iguanas before. I didn't know how skittish they were. It turns out you would think they were all drugged up on Valium or something because they weren't moving. click the image for a larger version)

As I got closer and closer, I just kept focusing. I was using my 70-180mm Nikkor macro, which is another classic example of Nikon's infinite wisdom. The greatest lens they've ever made and they quit making it. In any event, I'm getting closer, and closer, and closer to the point where it then started to add an extension tube which got me even closer.

This also was a shot taken in the days of film. Subsequently, I found myself literally eye to eye with this thing. I was thrilled. I was as happy as a clam in high tide. I ended up shooting an amazing close-up of his eye.

The bluish-ness that you see here has been enhanced in Photoshop because I scanned the slide. It was initially blue to begin with, because it was at this point in open shade on a clear day.

That's something else that when you're shooting objects in open shade, they will record excessively blue because of the blue sky overhead. It gets contaminated, so to say. The shade records all that blue light from above.

Getting Lost In the Moment

That's the story behind the iguana. What makes it fun is this is that I had no idea what was happening to me because of my intense desire to get closer and closer and closer, and when I finally finished and got up, I was literally covered from neck down to my ankles in iguana dung that I had scooted across.

That night when I got back to the hotel, I took the clothes and put them in a laundry bag and called the maid service. I'm sure they're still talking about it today about that guy in room 712 that sent us all that iguana dung.

Audri Lanford: You'll really enjoy this, Bryan. You sent us these photographs earlier. My assistant was looking at them with her son. I think he's about eight, seven or eight, maybe even younger. He looked at this picture and he said, "Is that a dragon?"

Bryan Peterson: Interesting because it looks like a dragon.

Audri Lanford: It does look like a dragon. She said, "Yes."

Bryan Peterson: He was. It's a miniature dragon.

Audri Lanford: Absolutely. He just sat there and looked at it forever.

Bryan Peterson: This lizard eye photo was going to be the cover for the Understanding Close-up Photography book. Unfortunately the higher-ups that be at Random House, which just recently purchased Watson-Guptill, knocked it down and said it was, "Far too chilling for the average consumer" somehow.

Audri Lanford: That's too bad because it's an amazing photograph.

In Closing

Sometimes getting the right shot means losing yourself in the moment. That's exactly what Bryan Peterson did to get this close-up macro image of this beautiful lizard eye.