Litoria infrafrenata
Photo a Day Challenge
A Menu for Ralph
Photo a Day Challenge: Week 44 — October 7th to October 13th
After many nights wandering around my garden in my pyjamas with a torch next to my eyes looking for eyeshine I finally found a frog in my garden! Meet Ralph. He’s a White-lipped Green Tree Frog and his species is Australia’s biggest frog species, growing up to 14cm or 5 inches.
The rest of the week in photos was dominated by his prey. I got a macro lens finally and I have been having oodles of fun learning how to capture the detail of my garden’s smaller residents.
I have been tracking the development of this Red-bodied Swallowtail. I’ve never seen the butterfly, but it must have been around because the egg this caterpillar came from didn’t lay itself! I got this shot with my phone, because my telephoto lens struggles with the light in this particular part of the garden.
It’s the butterfly room and this is the first caterpillar! Of course, Ralph would happily view it as a buffet so it’s a good thing that he was in another part of the garden entirely.
On Saturday we got stuck into finishing off the vegetable patch. While planting seeds I saw this amazing creature. She’s a Netwing Mantis and she’s very welcome to stay in the vegetable patch and munch on all the pests. She’s tiny, less than an inch long.
I wish she’d come back so that I could try shooting her with the macro lens. I only had my phone to hand when I saw her and then she flew away!
The Gardenias are in full flower right now and the smell is intoxicating. They are covered in bugs as you can see in the photos. This plant was near where I found Ralph. Perhaps he’s worked out where the best snacks are…
What’s a good restaurant without good lighting?!
This full moon lit up the whole garden with soft white light. I managed to capture it with a very fast shutter speed. I’ve always been fascinated with the moon and her silver light.
As soon as I unpacked my macro lens from its packaging, it was on the camera and I was out in the garden, but the learning curve meant that I didn’t get a shot I was happy with until I was at home during the day.
This is a stingless bee. I’m not sure which one. Australian stingless bees look so similar that even experts struggle to differentiate them without seeing hive structures. This little lady is only 4.5mm long, that’s a measly 0.17 inches. I was thrilled to see the detail but things were about to get even better!
On day three with the macro lens I was wandering through the garden when I saw this Robber Fly. Robber Flies are voracious predators that capture their prey mid-flight. Of course, Ralph would happily catch him mid-flight!
I took a photo then went closer. I took another photo. I kept going closer and realised that my telephoto lens had trained me to keep my distance! Now I had a macro I could get very close indeed.
I was thrilled with the detail of this insect. Look at those hairs! Macro lens are exciting!
This damsel fly looked like a small stick floating through the air. I stalked her until she landed. I wanted to shoot her from the front but she wouldn’t oblige me. A quick upload to iNaturalist revealed that she is a “Blue Slim”, rather unimaginative but accurate!
It was a revelation getting a macro lens and I can’t wait to get better at using it. It’s revealing quite amazing detail of Ralph’s potential meals, but Ralph was definitely a highlight this week. Now I know that there are White-lipped Frogs in my garden and I am bursting with impatience to find more when the wet season hits!
This story was originally published in the online publication Weeds and Wildflowers as a part of their “Photo A Day” challenge.
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