Chuckawalla Shoot

[Ultra Magnus]

So, I mentor this kid for his senior project, which happens to be on photography. He's got a thing for lizards, so I took him to some local hills where I once out of the corner of my eye saw a couple big ones scurry into a crevise while I was out riding my bike... I turns out there are lots of these guys, all over that area.

These photos are of the 4th one we found, after we were getting the technique of approaching them down. The trick is to move REAL slow, and take a lot of time.

Taken with my Sony A700 & 18-200 F3.5/6.3 lens. It's not a real macro lens but with a min focus distance of 1.5ft, it does ok...

[Old Timer]

Boy those are some ornery looking creatures. And my wife thought her skin was getting rough. Don't see anything like that around these parts.

[Ultra Magnus]

The kid I was with managed to catch that one... Skin's like sandpaper, and them claws are long and sharp! He (or she??) let us get real close, and hung out with us for a good long time. It was good fun... That was my first time actually going out wiht the intention of shooting a certian animal, actually finding said animal, and then getting a few decent shots of it...

BM