[JohnR]

This guy lives out in the back yard somewhere. We recently cleared the garden around the side of the house, and today there he was being optimistic about a few tiny rays of a little sunshine in the wettest Sydney summer since about 1000 B.C.



Normally you can never get the tail in and still get enough detail, so I decided to have another go at stitching. This time with a program called Double Take - works like a charm. Hard to get things lined up properly when shooting though - I had to rotate the stitched image and crop it. About 16 Mpixels.

[Bear]

too cool!

[nathanm]

Really?  You mean that thing was sitting still enough to take multiple shots?  Well, I suppose it was a fast 'motor drive' sort of thing…when I think of stitching I think of tripods I guess, but I suppose it wouldn't have to be.  Really nice image in any case, despite the softness on the tail.  The colors are nice.

[JohnR]

Thank guys. He was trying to bask in the meagre sunshine on our newly created rock "wall"... They move off pretty quick if you get too close. I was using a 300mm lens so was about 3m away from him - every now and then when I moved the tripod a bit he would turn his head around and stare at me for a while.

The tripod was a help but not much - I learned that you need to rotate around the sensor, not the tripod mount on the lens. Makes sense but I didn't think of it on the first try. Fortunately he was still there after I realized and went back out.

Re soft tail - it would have been nice if he was facing towards me. I couldn't really get around the other side of it. From memory this one was at F/8.

[SteveFord]

That's a great shot of a handsome water dragon - I've had Chinese water dragons but never any Australian ones.
You're lucky to live where you have them living in your yard. 

[SET Man]

Hey!

    Nice catch John. Look like that guy is keeping an eye on you there.

    How big can they get?

Take care,
Buddy

[JohnR]

Thanks guys. Buddy, this isn't the biggest one I've seen here by a long shot, one time there was one on the driveway that must have been getting up near a meter tip to tail. Only time I've ever seen one that big though. But the tails are very long, in the picture above you don't even see the end of it as it's dropping over the rock wall. This one was maybe 50-60 cm I'd guesstimate.

[Speedskater]

When I first saw this thread title,  i thought it had something to do with Australia Day and a parade float. 

[SET Man]

When I first saw this thread title,  i thought it had something to do with Australia Day and a parade float.

Hey!

   Actually that what I thought at first too since the Chinese just celebrated Chinese new year and this year is the year of the Dragon and a Water Dragon at that.

Thanks guys. Buddy, this isn't the biggest one I've seen here by a long shot, one time there was one on the driveway that must have been getting up near a meter tip to tail. Only time I've ever seen one that big though. But the tails are very long, in the picture above you don't even see the end of it as it's dropping over the rock wall. This one was maybe 50-60 cm I'd guesstimate.

     Hmmm... that is pretty big. Not a bad thing to use 300mm lens for this I say. Wouldn't want to get whipped by this guy

Take care,
Buddy

[ArthurDent]

Very nice picture John. Neat to have that type of wildlife in your yard/neighborhood. Bet he/she helps keep the bugs down too.            JD

[JohnR]

ArthurDent, if only we had more of them. I had to kill a couple of paper-wasp nests out the back, not that I really wanted to but without being able to work in the garden without getting stung I'm afraid we had to show our superiority in chemical warfare. Sad, as they are a local species and weren't doing anything other than what they are genetically programmed to do.

[Russell Dawkins]

ArthurDent, if only we had more of them. I had to kill a couple of paper-wasp nests out the back, not that I really wanted to but without being able to work in the garden without getting stung I'm afraid we had to show our superiority in chemical warfare. Sad, as they are a local species and weren't doing anything other than what they are genetically programmed to do.

Around here (Victoria BC Canada) we can buy those grey paper fake nests to hang. They deter would-be nest building wasps due to their territorial nature.