Karma Chameleon

 

I make a weekly trip to Reptiles and Exotics in Fishamble Street for insects for my frogs and gecko.  While on a break from lecturing, and with all my exam papers corrected I decided to bring my camera with me to see if I could take some shots of the  reptiles and other creatures in the shop.

The Amboile Panther Chameleons really caught my eye.  The large enclosure contained two female and two males.  The females are brown and peach in colour while the males have strong vivid colourings of reds, orange, green, blue and white.  The smaller of the two males kept coming over and tapping at the glass door and seemed to be waving to me.  Even when he was climbing on the plant he seemed to be staring towards my camera.

It is very difficult to get good photos in a reptile shop, with many challenges to overcome.  Lighting can be a big issue with some enclosures rather dark while others have strong artificial looking lighting.  Generally you have to use a slower shutter speed than normal for a moving creature.  In this shot I set my shutter to 1/200 sec. While I was using my f2.8 macro lens I set the aperture to f/7.1 to try get more of the chameleon in focus.  It can be difficult getting their protruding eyes and the face in focus with a low aperture.  My ISO was 16,000 but Topaz DeNoise helped reduce the noise well. 

To view other photos taken in the shop stored in my Flickr album click here