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A Truly Beautiful big Iguana (a580, Tamron 150-600)

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busch said:
Perfect exposure and lovely detail! That lens is doing a great job for you.
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Many thanks!

busch said:
Seeing this reminded me of a night many years ago in SEA. There were about 20 of us fighter pilots living in an open bay wooden building. All we had was a bed and a footlocker and a very small table/desk. It was after midnight and I was writing a letter to my wife while using a small flashlight so as to not bother the other guys who were sleeping. A large gecko suddenly dropped from the ceiling onto my arm. If you heard a scream about 48 years ago, that was me! I even woke up the guys in the next building!!
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You wouldn't have wanted to grow up in Florida. When we moved down here from New Jersey when I was a kid, none of the family realized quite how much the local wildlife would be found INSIDE the house. For us kids, we were young enough to not have any fear of them yet, so we sort of grew up finding it all fascinating - but it was very common to have house geckos and anoles on the living room wall, palmetto bugs on the inside bathroom window, various rat snakes and garter snakes scurrying across the garage and laundry room, and big lubber grasshoppers springing across the bed if you left a window open. My grandmother hated it - took her a few years to justify why she moved down to a swamp...and my mother never could handle it and still hates it today.

For me, I love all the big bugs, reptiles, and amphibians around the house, and when they're in the house, I catch them and let them go. Occasionally I have to fish a big iguana or huge cane toad out of my pool. The only ones I never could get used to are the palmetto bugs - to this day, those things freak me out! (for those that don't know - those are Florida's version of a cockroach - 10 times the size, cannot be killed even stepping on them on a cement floor, and they fly too. Fun!
 
Bart7D said:
Great image, Justin!

First time I met iguanas was on Aruba. Green ones, striped ones - none as varicolored as this one of yours!
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They get more distinguished and more flourished as they get older - the dewlaps get bigger, the spines taller, and the stripes darker. When you see the big 5-6 foot males, they're usually the most Godzilla-looking!

Bart7D said:
It was fun anyway to have them around the breakfast table and... well, all over the place, actually.
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That's a nice shot of yours - he's got some orange color coming in too - looks like a smaller, younger one.

They're everywhere in my part of Florida. Boca Raton was the spot where green iguanas were first thought to have taken hold as an invasive species, so we've always had the most compared to other Florida cities.
 
Found this by reading "Trending" and I'm glad I did-- what a gorgeous animal portrait. Of course you had a very attractive subject. If you like lizards. Which I do.
 
I'm not afraid of them, it just surprised me so darn much! At first I didn't even know what it was due to the darkness. We had some other neat wildlife: cobras, tigers etc and the hooch's were more or less in the middle of a jungle. The long walkway to the flight line was a narrow teakwood wiggly thing just above the water level in the swamp and it was completely dark for the first flight of the day. BTW, my mother and step father lived in Florida for many years so I am familiar with most of your "wild life".

--
Busch
Take the scenic route! Life is too short to do otherwise.
My Photos
 
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zackiedawg said:
busch said:
Perfect exposure and lovely detail! That lens is doing a great job for you.
Click to expand...
Many thanks!
zackiedawg said:
Seeing this reminded me of a night many years ago in SEA. There were about 20 of us fighter pilots living in an open bay wooden building. All we had was a bed and a footlocker and a very small table/desk. It was after midnight and I was writing a letter to my wife while using a small flashlight so as to not bother the other guys who were sleeping. A large gecko suddenly dropped from the ceiling onto my arm. If you heard a scream about 48 years ago, that was me! I even woke up the guys in the next building!!
Click to expand...
You wouldn't have wanted to grow up in Florida. When we moved down here from New Jersey when I was a kid, none of the family realized quite how much the local wildlife would be found INSIDE the house. For us kids, we were young enough to not have any fear of them yet, so we sort of grew up finding it all fascinating - but it was very common to have house geckos and anoles on the living room wall, palmetto bugs on the inside bathroom window, various rat snakes and garter snakes scurrying across the garage and laundry room, and big lubber grasshoppers springing across the bed if you left a window open. My grandmother hated it - took her a few years to justify why she moved down to a swamp...and my mother never could handle it and still hates it today.

For me, I love all the big bugs, reptiles, and amphibians around the house, and when they're in the house, I catch them and let them go. Occasionally I have to fish a big iguana or huge cane toad out of my pool. The only ones I never could get used to are the palmetto bugs - to this day, those things freak me out! (for those that don't know - those are Florida's version of a cockroach - 10 times the size, cannot be killed even stepping on them on a cement floor, and they fly too. Fun!
Click to expand...
 
Iguanas are vegetarians and not at all aggressive. They make good pets if a bit boring.
--
Tom

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busch said:
I'm not afraid of them, it just surprised me so darn much! At first I didn't even know what it was due to the darkness. We had some other neat wildlife: cobras, tigers etc and the hooch's were more or less in the middle of a jungle. The long walkway to the flight line was a narrow teakwood wiggly thing just above the water level in the swamp and it was completely dark for the first flight of the day. BTW, my mother and step father lived in Florida for many years so I am familiar with most of your "wild life".
Click to expand...
Gotcha. Yep, they can be a bit surprising if you're not expecting something that size! I had the same reaction the first time I happened upon a Burmese python out in the Everglades...I have no fear of snakes, and knew the pythons existed out there, but hadn't seen one with my own eyes - so when I came up on what looked like a colorful fire hose draped across the levee ahead of me, I didn't really register what it was until I got close to it, then nearly jumped back 10 feet when I realized. After that it was cool to watch as it moved into the reeds, but the initial sighting was a bit of a surprise.
 
rvssts said:
I was standing in formation after arriving in San Antone by bus, sometime after midnight and palmetto bug landed on the shoulder of the guy standing next to me. My eyes were big enough to attract the attention of the local "Human Resources nightmare" the Training Instructor (T.I.). If he would not have yelled at me to stand straight I probably would have crawled back on the bus and cowered under a seat till someone took me back to good ole Missouri.
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Yep, we grow our bugs big down here. ;)

My first genuine encounter with one was when I was probably 10 years old or so - one was sitting on the wall of my grandmother's house, and I was there alone with my friend Kieran. We both weren't very familiar with these bugs yet - he was from Ireland - so we were shocked by the huge size but still brave because even a big roach still just crawls and scurries, right? I decided I was going to make a big splat mark on the wall, and had a rolled up Nat Geo magazine...I got right up to the beast, and raised the magazine to smack it, and next thing I knew I heard a helicopter taking off and buzzing my ear...I ducked quickly throwing my hands up over my head to swat like mad - having just discovered that these things FLY...my friend Kieran was a little late to react, standing there somewhat shocked and mouth agape, as the beast landed directly on his head...after a slight cartoon-like delayed reaction, he started running all over the house swatting his head and screaming...and rather than helping, I had backed myself into the laundry room and closed the door.

Eventually, no harm done - he got it off his head, and it squeezed itself through some impossible crack in the floorboards. After that, I kept myself a good 5-10 feet back from these things when I spotted them, preferring to spray from a distance then run!
 
The key is usually getting the exposure right, which will keep the noise down and retain the detail well. This was shot JPG, and no noise reduction or anything needed...there would be some visible noise in a blank blue sky, but the composition was busy enough to hide it here.
 
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I should be fair in pointing out that an iguana COULD actually hurt you - but they're not dangerous by any means. They have very shallow rows of small teeth, made for mashing veggies - but if they were in a very aggressive mood for mating time, or very threatened, and bit you, they shake their heads when they bite and could definitely break some skin. But they rarely would do this - and pet owners usually know the lizard's body language when they're tense. Certainly your typical house cat can do far more damage to you when agitated!
 
That would have been my reaction as well :)

:-)
 
zackiedawg said:
I should be fair in pointing out that an iguana COULD actually hurt you - but they're not dangerous by any means. They have very shallow rows of small teeth, made for mashing veggies - but if they were in a very aggressive mood for mating time, or very threatened, and bit you, they shake their heads when they bite and could definitely break some skin. But they rarely would do this - and pet owners usually know the lizard's body language when they're tense. Certainly your typical house cat can do far more damage to you when agitated!
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And your typical house cat could easily kill an Iguana if motivated to do so although most would not even try.
 
Very nice! I always enjoy those big Lizards! :-)
 
That is a very nice Iguana.

Out of curiosity, where did you get ahold of a 150-600 in Alpha mount?

I still see it as 'Available for pre-order' and it has been like that for the past 6 months or so.
 
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Tarsier said:
That is a very nice Iguana.

Out of curiosity, where did you get ahold of a 150-600 in Alpha mount?

I still see it as 'Available for pre-order' and it has been like that for the past 6 months or so.
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Thank you.

I was one of those who ordered the lens WAAAAY back at the end of last year, when the first announcement popped up and said it would be available in early January. It wasn't, so we waited until September, but as soon as the first batch hit the states, all those on the early preorder list got ours, plus a few lucky folks that hit local stores to grab any unclaimed first copies.

You may be able to track one down if you have a fairly large local camera store nearby, or hunt down a few online...the big providers like Amazon, B&H, etc are likely sold out and have a list, but smaller stores may not.
 
zackiedawg said:
Thank you.

I was one of those who ordered the lens WAAAAY back at the end of last year, when the first announcement popped up and said it would be available in early January. It wasn't, so we waited until September, but as soon as the first batch hit the states, all those on the early preorder list got ours, plus a few lucky folks that hit local stores to grab any unclaimed first copies.

You may be able to track one down if you have a fairly large local camera store nearby, or hunt down a few online...the big providers like Amazon, B&H, etc are likely sold out and have a list, but smaller stores may not.
Click to expand...
I'm going to wait until next spring when the dust settles and possibly by then Tamron will be offering one of their rebates.
 
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