Poison dart frogs

One of the beautiful creatures that I often have in my frog and reptile workshop (the next one is June 25, 26 in St. Louis) is this striped dart frog from South America. I feel that most macro subjects look best with diffused light, and the ring flash I used for this picture is placed so close to the subjects that the light envelopes them, simulating the type of soft light we see from an overcast sky. By using a ring flash (or a twin flash setup for macro) there is enough light output to hand hold the camera and still use f/32 for complete depth of field. With intriguing macro subjects, the ideal is to use the smallest lens aperture so we can see and appreciate all of the wonderful detail, texture, and color with tack sharp clarity. My settings were f/32, 1/200th of a second, 200 ISO, and I used a 50mm macro lens.