The Gecko Hunter

A frog a day

2009-12-29T22:51:00.005+10:00

Holy jumpin' amphibian batman!

It's been 3 days in a row that we've had frogs outside the dining room. First was the graceful tree frog from the last post, then yesterday was this Green-thighed frog:

And tonight was a tiny little Eastern Sedgefrog.

By the way, I find most of the critter names for this blog from one book, so I figure I should at least mention it. It's called Wildlife Of Greater Brisbane from the Australian Museum. John Passfield recommended it and it's been really helpful.

Anyway, sedge frogs are quite common and we hear them all the time, but this is the first time I've seen one.

More frog pictures

2009-12-27T21:06:00.005+10:00

What do we have here? Another frog. The same one as last week?

It was in a really cool froggy pose tonight so I couldn't resist taking pictures. Here you go:

Wet Season

2009-12-20T21:04:00.003+10:00

The wet season has begun here in Brisbane. Big showers yesterday and today have brought out the rain critters. That includes toads and frogs. Here's a Graceful Treefrog we saw this evening clinging to our dining room window. Sticky!

Leonard the Cane Toad

2009-11-29T19:23:00.006+10:00

This is Leonard. He's a cane toad. He comes to say hi every night outside our dining room window, so I named him. We think he uses the light to hunt delicious crunchy Christmas beetles.

I know I'm not supposed to like cane toads because they're an invasive pest and they're dangerous to domestic animals but LOOK AT THIS FACE !

Love me

Blue Tongue Skink

2009-11-15T21:50:00.008+10:00

Found this little fella in our garden yesterday so I started taking pictures. It almost looks like a chubby snake with little legs. Click on the picture to watch the video. You might even see his beautiful blue tongue...

First snake in a LONG time

2009-08-22T18:41:00.007+10:00

I spotted this little fellow while we were having breakfast. It's a young green tree snake, like the one Clo saw last year on April fool's. It didn't stay very long, just passing through the garden. Green tree snakes are not venomous and don't even have fangs.

It's been over a year since we saw a snake in the wild so I was pretty stoked about this little guy.

Clo ... not so much.

Photo editing for beginners

2009-06-22T21:00:00.028+10:00

Congrats to all the new photographers on completing your course. You'll no doubt have lots of things to practice so make sure you get out there and take some shots while it's still fresh in your mind.

When you come back and you're ready to put your pics up on your blog, take a moment to consider some simple photo editing to make those shots really stand out.

For many people "Photoshopping" is a bad word that involves making models skinnier and boobs bigger. But that's not what photo editing software was intended for. Just as a film photographer would spend some time in the dark room getting the right print, many consider photo editing as the "digital darkroom" where you can get the most out of your photos.

The other misconception is that it's really hard to learn, well that one is true ... Photoshop has a steep learning curve. That's why I recommend you use something simpler to get started.

Paint.NET is a great little free photo editing program for windows that allows you to do the basic adjustments without needing a 1000-page manual.

[Download it here]

Unfortunately, Paint.NET lacks a few basic plugins ... but that's OK, I wrote them just for you!

(Install this plugin set once you have installed Paint.NET)

Got everything installed? Good ... let's start!

There are a a few things that often need adjusting, so it's good to learn how to spot them and then apply the right correction in software.

Exposure - Maybe you didn't get your exposure settings just right, or maybe the scene tricked your camera into taking incorrect exposure. That's easy to fix. But spotting exposure errors is a little harder and takes some practice. I'll show you some examples of incorrect exposure.

Overexposed (too light) Your camera took its exposure measurement on something dark in a bright scene.

Underexposed (too dark) Your camera took its exposure measurement on something light in a dark scene

Washed out colors (happens sometimes when shooting towards the sun)

Fixing exposure is usually just a question of brightness/contrast. But the standard Brightness/Contrast that comes with photo editing software is useless to fix photos. It will brightnen your blacks and make white hightlights look grey. That's where you need Levels adjustments. It's a like the Tide(tm) of brightness/Contrast; it keeps your whites white and your darks dark. It can be found under the "Adjustments" menu at the top of Paint.NET and it's called "Simple Levels..."

The basic idea is you want to make the most of the color curve in the middle (called a histogram). Notice the three arrows under the curve (black, grey and white), these are your adjustments. For an average scene, you want to drag the black cursor towards the right until it points to the beginning of the curve. Same with the white cursor (but moved left), or you can hit the "Auto" button. Then using the middle (grey) cursor, adjust your contrast without changing what's black and what's white. Go ahead, try it on the images above see how Levels adjustments can save a bad photo! Play around with all three cursors to get a good feel of what they do. And use the Preview tick box to get a quick before-after of your work.

Levels adjustments have saved this boring picture !

Sometimes an image will only have a gap on one side, not both, that's ok, you don't need to touch all three to fix an image, you don't even need to touch it all at if the exposure is correct. But get used to at least looking at the histogram when you're reviewing your pictures, you'll soon get an "eye" to spot which pictures actually need fixing.

2. White Balance - This one is easier to fix but harder to spot. When your camera takes a picture it tries to judge the color of the light. Light isn't always white, but our eye does a good job at adjusting to make it look white. Your camera tries to do this too, but doesn't always succeed. The color of the light also plays on how an image "feels" when you look at it. Skin tones look bad when the light is "cold" (blue tint) and make people look cold or sick. "Warm" (yellow) light on skin looks healthier and flattering. Using a flash often results in weird color tints as well. To correct these we go to the "Adjustments" menu again and select "Simple White Balance..."

Correction is just a matter of moving the temperature slider to make the image warmer or colder. (Try +0.25 to +0.30 on the example image above, remember to use the Preview tick box to preview changes as these may be subtle)

3. Sharpening - All images can benefit from a little bit of sharpening. Pros sharpen ALL their pictures before publishing. It can really help your photos stand out. Just remember to sharpen as the last step (after resizing), right before saving your final photo for posting. To sharpen in Paint.NET goto the "Effects" menu and select "Photo ..." then "Sharpen". A small value (1 to 5) should be enough to sharpen your picture without looking fake, no Preview tick box though, I didn't write this one :-(

Subtle difference, but the sharpened one below shows more detail around the eye.

That's the three main things I recommend doing everytime you work on a picture. Levels, White Balance and Sharpening. Once you get used to spotting errors, you can breeze through a dozen pictures in 5 minutes.

So there, more new things to practice. Have fun ... and lets see those pics!

Lorikeets, Guns ... and Roses

2009-05-10T22:36:00.006+10:00

My first video with the new camera ... crazy birds!

(make sure sound is on)

Return of the Water Dragon

2009-02-23T12:58:00.004+10:00

I've been seeing more and more of this little water dragon behind the house. I'd like to think it's the one we found last year in our garage and that's it's growing up nicely with all the delicious bugs that hang around those retaining wall boulders. I managed to get a few shots before it got spooked and went back into its little rock home.

See you around, little fella !

Night sounds

2009-02-11T09:28:00.005+10:00

There's one thing that's very particular about Australia's animals: they don't shut up at night!

Sometimes it's funny, like when bats fight over ripe fruit, sometimes it's REALLY annoying, like when 50+ cockatoos do fly-by's screaming right next to your bedroom window at 5 am. And sometimes it's just spooky, like when you hear this at 2am ...

Monitor lizards in the glass house mountains

2009-01-30T12:12:00.002+10:00

We went for a hike around mount Tibrogargan on Monday and we saw 5 or 6 different monitor lizards (they call'em Goannas here). Some were shy and scurried off to climb trees as soon as they spotted us. Others didn't really care, as long as we stayed a couple of meters away. Here's a BIG one (~1.5m) foraging for food around the staging area.

Lizards of the new year !

2009-01-25T18:46:00.009+10:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted something new, and what better way to start the year than the critter that started it all, the gecko !

I got these pictures of an Asian house gecko that hunts outside our office window at night.

Check out those sticky feet !

As well as some video of hunting for little bugs ... pretty cool !

I spotted this baby skink outside the other day. I guess it's that time of year where the babies are left to fend for themselves. This little guy was small, 4 cm at most with tail.

Later that day I also saw this grasshopper, look at the loooong pointy head.

Flood Critters

2008-11-22T19:13:00.007+10:00

With all the storms and rain we've been getting, the wildlife has changed around here:

Most of the trees behind our house are gone, so there are less birds. Also, the flood way next to the house has been full of water for a week now, so we're starting to see ducks down there! Yesterday I spotted this little guy clinging to the patio door. Right out of a Telus ad!

Now here's something that had me worried today: I spotted these ants moving their eggs and larvae into our house. I don't care about a few ants in my walls, you can't avoid that here. But the last time I saw ants moving their eggs to higher ground was last saturday, and the next day we got hit with hurricane winds, torrential rain and huge hail. They're preparing for something ... I hope they're over-reacting this time.

Macro fun

2008-11-01T17:45:00.004+10:00

After yesterday's events, I just spent a quiet Saturday at home. Macro photography really relaxes me, so I got out my camera and sat in the grass and had a close look at what I could find.

I'm getting better with manual focus and at controlling the very shallow depth of field this lens produces. Here's some of the cool stuff I found.

This spikey beetle was a great subject, very slow moving and VERY cool looking.

Maybe this young praying mantis is the same one I shot a while back when it was a baby ?

Some vegetation. This is a close-up a bottlebrush flower bud

My rainbow chilies, lookin' fine !

Noosa Critters

2008-10-21T20:10:00.007+10:00

Here's some pics of critters we saw while camping last weekend in Noosa.

This big guy greeted us on the first morning. He's a Gould's Monitor (aka Sand Goanna) and was about 1m long.

Gorgeous tongue!

This Green Tree Frog was pretty annoyed at us taking picture after picture, lots of flashes for those senstitve eyes.

This is a Garden Orb Weaver. It was fairly small (~2 cm) and had cool spikey legs.

Here's a different kind of monitor lizard, this one's a Lace Monitor, they climb trees with ease.

Skink. There were LOTS of these.

Another Skink.

Baby Mantis

2008-09-28T13:42:00.003+10:00

These last couple of days, I noticed these weird ant-like bugs crawling around the outside of the house. They're black and about the size of a large ant (~1cm). But when you look closely, you'll notice the front legs are more like a mantis and their fat abdomen is actually a long skinny abdomen that's curled up ... So I did a quick search, and sure enough, these are mantis nymphs, it's pretty cool how they disguise themselves as black ants like that, it must help them survive...

Cool Insects

2008-09-14T10:17:00.008+10:00

Just a few shots of some cool bugs I found while out on a macro photography run around the house. I'll spare you the spiders this time, instead I have this cool grasshopper. He was tiny but I caught him resting on a basil leaf and got this shot.

Tiny but colorful little fella.

Later, as I was showing Clo some weird fungus spores under a leaf, we both jumped as this guy started moving. We didn't see him at all, yet he was huge, about 15-20cm long !

Stick-insect (Mantid)

Can you spot him ?

Double-Barred Finch

2008-09-14T10:03:00.006+10:00

These little guys have been become regulars over the past few weeks when the big birds aren't around. They eat the smaller seeds that the parrots don't seem to like as much, so they're a great addition to our little garden ecosystem.

They're tiny, so much so that gravity doesn't seems to affect them in flight, they just flutter lightly from once place to another. I like them because they look like they've had their face painted.

Not a great picture, but it gives an idea of the size of these little birds

Bye bye!

Spider Sniffing

2008-08-28T21:57:00.011+10:00

This week I bought a pretty powerful LED headlight with the hopes of getting some night rides on the mountain bike. But then Dan told me that with a powerful flashlight, you can see spiders at night. It's called spider sniffing and it's really cool, it does work !

You just walk around at night with your light mounted as close to your eyes as possible facing forward and when you look down into a field, you'll see the reflection of spider's retinas from really far away, even small ones. Because they have 8 eyes, chances are one of them is pointing your way and you'll see a reflection.

I managed to get a picture of what it looks like to spot one from far away. Click on the pics to see properly.

The big ones are Huntsman Spiders from what I can tell and the smaller ones are burrowing Wolf Spiders. Both very common in Queensland. The ones in these pictures had sizes ranging from 2cm for the little guys up to 10cm leg-span like this one on the fence.

My setup for these shots was my Canon 60mm EF-S macro, plus diffused flash + LED headlight, so the lighting almost looks like daylight, but these were taken in pitch dark.

Notice the two outer eyes on the top row, they're inside a cavity and facing almost completely backwards!

Mmmm, fuzzy !

I'm ready for crocodiles !

2008-08-24T20:44:00.004+10:00

... little ones.

You might have already read our big blog posting about our holiday in Port Douglas, but I kept this picture for this blog because it's funny and it fits nicely with my critter theme.

Poor little guy was pretty cold. I guess they have to be to stand still for pictures.

Wild Bird Feeding

2008-08-05T20:04:00.007+10:00

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As you may or may not realize, it's winter here. Which means the reptiles and insects are pretty rare on these cold(ish) days. But the birds don't care, actually they're probably having a harder time finding food by themselves and are happy to fill the critter-picture void created by the "cold" season. (FYI nights are 8degC, days 22degC, harsh :-p )

The parrots we get coming around to our bird feeder are wild. Some don't mind us being outside as I'm sure they're used to the sight of people, but they aren't tame by any stretch. So I'm happy to say that after many weeks of getting closer and closer to them with limited success, we finally earned their trust enough to let us feed them "by hand". Ok, they're not exactly perched on my shoulders or eating out of my hand just yet, but still ... one small step ... and hey, I was really excited to be that close to them.

The feeding line up

A happy cockatoo and a happy gecko hunter!

Clo gets in on the action

Extra trivia: Did you know the Crocodile Hunter was afraid of parrots ? Here's a excerpt from a Larry King interview that explains why:

[Irwin is holding a Macaw parrot and explaining why it's endangered]

KING: I thought you were afraid of parrots.

IRWIN: I am. You might see my head's way back, and I'm shaking like a leaf.

KING: Because?

IRWIN: Have a look at that beak.

KING: Have you been bit by a parrot?

IRWIN: I've had a lot of nasty bites by parrots, and it hurts. I set up a big wildlife hospital at Australia Zoo. In fact, it's the biggest wildlife hospital in Australia. And last month, we had 80 koalas come through and 27 parrots and, I think, 13 of those bit me.

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The right tool for the job

2008-07-21T19:06:00.014+10:00

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With all the birds we've been getting at our bird feeder, I was getting frustrated with the quality of my low-end telephoto lens. I was thinking I'll wait until I'm in Toronto again and go shop around for a deal on a Canon 100-400m zoom or something.

Only things is, it'll be a while before I'm back in Canada and the birds are here now, so when I read good things about this new lens, I thought this could be the lens I'm looking for. Well sure enough, the initial reviews are very good and when I saw that I could get it for the same price here as in Canada, I went for it.

Here's my new Sigma Bazooka, it's HUGE!

Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM

I'm still getting used to it, it's heavy (2.0kg), but it has image stabilization so hand held is still possible with good light.

Here's a sample shot I took with it. I re-sized it to 1600 pixels on purpose so you can see the detail in the feathers, I'm really happy with this shot. Standard sharpening (40/1/0) was applied after re-size.

ISO400, 1/800, f7.1, 150-500mm @ 450mm

We went back to Lone Pine Koala sanctuary on Sunday so we'll have more pics up soon.

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Always Look Down

2008-06-21T17:23:00.007+10:00

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We've been told by a few Australians that you should always look where you walk anytime you're in the bush. In Canada, most of the things to look out for on a hike would be at eye level somewhere on the horizon. Things like bears, elk, squirrels, low branches ...

We went for a bushwalk with Nick from work and his wife Mariana this morning and were reminded why Australians always look where they step: snakes!

Mariana and Clo almost stepped on this snake.

From the look of the raised scales on it, I'd say it's a harmless keelback snake, but some Aussies have said it's a King brown (venomous). Then there's the Rough-scaled snake that kinda looks like a keelback but IS venomous!We didn't exactly piss it off on purpose to find out ...

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When we got back, I saw this moth on the wall above the BBQ (where the geckos usually hang out). It was pretty big, I'd say12-14cm (5") wide. Pretty cool pattern too, classic "fake eyes" looking back at you.

Leech walk

2008-06-10T21:25:00.003+10:00

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This weekend, we went for a hike in the sunshine coast hinterland. It's a very nice place to walk, typical Australian rainforest: lush and beautiful.

Except it's been raining for the last week up there, so it was a little swampy. And no swampy trail would be complete without leeches. No, the leeches here aren't venomous or anything, just annoying. They grab on to you as you brush up against leaves or just climb up your shoes if you stop. No one got bit, though they did make for a funny (paranoid) walking pace for everyone.

Little guy: No one was willing to let the big ones crawl around them for a picture!

Fun fact: Leeches are closely related to earthworms... except leeches have razor-sharp teeth, *growl* hehe

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Clo's birds

2008-05-04T23:08:00.005+10:00

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Here's a small picture assortment of different birds around the house. Clo took most of them, she loves the birds here, I also took a few.

One of the trees just behind the house started flowering this week. It's a "Weeping Teatree" (Melaleuca leucadendra) and has thousands of little white bottlebrush blossoms. We noticed the smell, it's pretty strong, not exactly pleasant, but not foul either, a sort of "sweet stink" is the best way I can describe it.

It must actually be sweet because this morning as we were enjoying our sunday morning pancakes, Clo noticed 3-4 rainbow lorikeets chirping and feeding on these flowers.

Share the love

Once again, YouTube turns a decent movie into a fuzzy mess,
oh well, you get the idea ... and the sounds!

This next one is pretty funny, while the picture isn't great, if you look closely you'll see a Kookaburra on the lower branch, a Blue faced HoneyEater above and to the left, and also a Noisy Miner right at the top. The Kookaboo captured a mantis or stick insect (probably caught it with its lasers, right ?) and the other birds were trying to make him give it up by poking him from behind. Crazy monkey screaming ensued.

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Clo really likes these guys, they're called Galahs. The reason Clo likes them is you usually see them huddled together 2 by 2 (couples) on power lines in the morning. They mate for life and they always stay together. Clo spotted these two feeding on clover in the park one afternoon. I think they look like a cross between a pigeon and a parrot. :-D

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Carpet Python

2008-04-21T20:19:00.007+10:00

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Now this is getting interesting!

We came home from doing the groceries tonight, Clo was putting away the food and then calmly said: "There's a snake climbing up the window !?" Sure enough, this Carpet Python was climbing up the security screen, with some kind of small animal in its stomach. It eventually fell down to the window sill and slithered across the BBQ then down past the garden and back into the ravine next to the house. I'm guessing it was looking for somewhere warm to digest that yummy morsel.

The window, the python.

Clo loves snakes!

Sticking its tongue out for the camera

Slowly making its escape ...

Along the BBQ cover

Down the propane tank

Into our garden and under the fence
(Look at my beautiful chili peppers)

This one was ~1.2m long, they average 2.5m so this was just a youngin'. They can grow to 4m and have been know to eat cats and small dogs. Pythons are not venomous.

Crickey, that was cool !
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A Dragon in the house !

2008-04-20T12:42:00.004+10:00

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We came back from a bike ride on Saturday and Clo said she saw what looked like a dried up gecko on the garage's screen door. Turns out it wasn't a dry gecko but rather a baby Water Dragon.

Sleeping ?

Looks like a baby Velociraptor

I don't know how it got in the garage or how long it's been there, but it looked kinda weak, so we set it free in the boulders next to the house, it should be fine there with plenty of hiding places and bugs and moisture.

They get pretty big and resemble Iguanas once fully grown, there's no way it would have survived in our garage...

It's been a while

2008-04-07T20:48:00.007+10:00

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I'll try and make up for it, here's three new post of pictures that were taken in the last month.

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I've been seeing a lot of Praying Mantis these last couple of weeks, maybe it's mating season. I'll assume the ones I saw alive were the females then ...

I remember seeing a few when I was a kid in Montreal, these are about the same size (~10cm) ... and just as vicious if you try and touch them.

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Tonight I was cooking up some chooks on the barbie (chicken on the BBQ in Canadian english) when Clo spotted this little guy on the dining room floor.

Skinks are funny

Cockatoo madness

2008-04-07T20:16:00.005+10:00

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Once in a while, usually around 6:30-7am, we get cockatoos flying in the park next to the house. They're such a beautiful bird, about the size of a large raven, if only their song didn't sound like smoker-pterodactyls. They live in groups of about 30 birds, so they pick a tree or a spot on the ground to feed, then sqwak away. Crank your computer speakers to their loudest to get the true immersion of what it's like to live with them. Then imagine that times 30 birds...

Still ... gorgeous birds.

Sulfur-crested cockatoo

Fight! Fight! Fight!

He's smiling!

These delicious guavas never stood a chance...

Snake in the rocks behind the house

2008-04-07T20:06:00.005+10:00

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You might have already seen Clo's pics of the little snake she saw just outside our house. It's a green tree snake, this one was ~60cm long, they're not venomous, in fact they're actually pretty cute. Even Clo agreed it was cute when it pretended to be a branch by bobbing its head side to side but didn't like it when it slithered around.

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I hate mowing the lawn ...

2008-03-05T08:05:00.004+10:00

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because the push mower we bought is not really good at ... well .. cutting grass. I really miss my Lee Valley one from Canada. I'll probably end up buying a gas one just like I'm supposed to.

Anyway, the good thing about about cutting the grass here is that you always discover new critters. Here's what I found this time.

Green Tree Frog

I think it was eating its old skin or something, Mmmm

Finger licking good.

I found this great article on the Australian Green Tree Frog, very informative !

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I also saw this spider, they weave a special silk to make their legs look longer.

Pretty cool stuff, but I still need a better lawnmower.

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Candy hunter

2008-02-15T18:48:00.007+10:00

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In my search for cinnamon heart candy this Valentine's day, I came across a candy store in the mall that had some pretty cool "lollies". No cinnamon hearts, but they did have cinnamon "discs" that tasted the same so Clo was happy.

Here's a few pictures of some of the wacky candy I found there.

Pineapples, pretty standard but delicious!

Clown fish, very colorful.

Nooooo ! Nemo !

Chicken feet !?, Mmmm, chicken feet ...

Bullets!, they're great for the kids

Gecko Love

2008-02-05T20:25:00.000+10:00

Just in time for valentine's day !

(Possibly not safe for work) :D

Birds in the backyard

2008-01-30T17:53:00.001+10:00

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Let's get away from spiders and lizards for a second and look at two of the hundreds of species of birds that live in the park behind our house.

Rainbow Lorikeet, very common (and loud)

These guys are spooky because they sound like monkeys laughing and they can start singing in the middle of the night!

Laughing Kookaburra
[Listen to what they sound like]

Critters found this weekend

2008-01-21T13:19:00.001+10:00

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Yesterday I saw this guy; biggest spider I've ever seen in the "wild" ... so far.

The brick in the background is standard size so he's not THAT big

Look at me !

I'm pretty sure he could hurt me, but he was very relaxed about the whole photoshoot, look at those fangs !

But not everything is dangerous down here, I found this guy, inside, right by the door.
I took a picture and let him out into the front flower bed.

Fence skink, on my finger (Finger skink?)

Good news, the new house has LOTS of geckos!

2008-01-17T08:58:00.000+10:00

We moved in this week and being half way up Mount Coot-tha, there's plenty of wildlife just outside our door. And inside! Turns out we have a gecko living in the house's laudry room as well... what is about laundry rooms ? open doors invite bugs ?

Here's some critters I saw on Tuesday evening.

Asian house gecko - These guys chirp really loud

Cane toad says: "Nobody likes me"

Yesterday we saw a tiny fence skink in the garage and managed to pick it up and move it to the garden, this little guy was even smaller than the guy in the apartment laundry room. They have tongues like snakes and use them to "smell" around. No pics though, I didn't have the camera, but I'm sure we'll meet again.

We'll have pics of the actual house up soon, but not until we get our internet hooked up again.

Baby gecko in our laundry room

2008-01-10T23:10:00.001+10:00

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I walked into the laundry room this evening to find this little guy running along the wall.

He (she?) was pretty small, and it took me a while to catch it, but I finally did and got this picture with it.

We got our pictures and set it free in our herb garden, maybe it'll stick around and we'll meet again...

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