This is a red-headed rock agama I photographed in Namibia. These commonly seen reptiles allow a fairly close approach, but after that they scurry away making it impossible to photograph. I wanted to fill a significant part of the frame showing their amazing color, but my Canon 500mm f/4 has a minimum focusing distance of 12 feet -- and that didn't get me close enough. So, I placed an extension tube between the lens and the body and that allowed me to focus from about 8 feet. Reptiles are completely motionless when they are posing, and that helps in maintaining maximum sharpness. Nevertheless, I used a tripod because the long lens plus the extension tube reduced depth of field a lot. I had to regain the lost focus, and that forced the shutter to be slow. Telephotos magnify movement, thus the tripod. My settings were 1/60, f/14, and 1000 ISO.
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