Garden In the Woods - Big Night

Type of Photography Nature, macro, field [yellow-spotted salamanders, frogs (3 species commonly seen), newts (rarely seen) – migrating, mating, and laying egg masses] Where Garden in the Woods, 180 Hemenway Road, Framingham; about ½ way up the access road, and the pond below the road to the left. The entrance road will be barricaded to autos. Park at the base of the road, outside of the garden property, and walk in.

When

First rainy night above 40° F in late spring after most of the snow in the woods has melted, between sunset and 10 PM. Last spring “Big Night” was on April 2. Sometimes it happens over multiple nights.

Tips

• You should bring the following equipment:
  
  • 2 flashlights (to locate and avoid stepping on subjects, to focus and compose)
  • Rain coat and pants (so you can kneel in puddles and on wet ground)
  • Warm clothes & waterproof boots
  • Large umbrella (it will be raining!)
  • Assistant (to hold the umbrella over your camera gear)
  • Off-camera strobe
  • Macro lens which focuses down to at least 1:2 (100 to 200 mm would be best)
  • Digital camera with electronic, rotatable, real-time display; or right-angle viewfinder on film or digital SLR’s (to simplify ground-level shooting)
• Plan to spend a couple hours, if you picked the night correctly. (You can call the Garden (at 508-877-7630) to see if the migration already happened.)
• The salamanders and frogs are easiest to spot on the paved road. If you wait until they finish crossing the road, you can photograph them on a natural background.
• Walk slowly, over area you have scanned with your flashlight. The peepers, in particular, are easy to mistake for pebbles (that occasionally springs away), and you don’t want to step on them or on the other animals.
• Shine a bright light in front of you, from the side of your head at eye-level. This will allow you to find animals by their eye-shine.
• Find where the chain-link fence on the right side of the road separates from the ground. This is where many of the salamanders pick to cross the fence.
• Later in the evening, once enough salamanders have reached the lower pond, a frenzy of mating begins (underwater).
• Don’t walk on the leaf litter in the woods. Stick to the trail when going to the lower pond. The salamanders travel under the leaf litter, and you will likely step on one if you are not on the (cleared) trail.
• Don’t touch the animals. Otherwise you might rub off the mucous membrane that keeps them from drying out and protects them from germs.
• The photo challenges are glare (everything is wet and shiny) and depth of field.
  
  • Experiment with different strobe positioning to minimize glare highlights
  • Use a small aperture (such as f22). Focus on the eye.
  • Low shooting angles let you see a smile from your subject
  • If shooting digital, critically review your images for lighting, background, range of sharp focus, and subject expression, then reshoot if necessary before moving on to your next subject