I spotted this agama lizard on the grounds of a lodge in Namibia, and while they allow a fairly close approach, they will dart away and disappear if you get too close. I wanted to fill the frame to show the beautiful detail and colors, and the only way to do that was to use a 500mm telephoto. However, the minimum focusing distance on my Canon lens is about 14 feet. I positioned my tripod closer than that -- about 10 feet -- in order to take this closeup. Therefore, I used an extension tube to enable me to focus the lens at just 10 feet. I will hand hold this big lens when necessary but not when magnifying the image so much. With the extension tube and the close proximity, there would be too much movement the camera and lens to insure a sharp picture if I hand held it. The good thing about photographing reptiles is that they remain perfectly still, and that means I did't have to worry about the shutter speed when shooting from a tripod. My settings for this were 1/60, f/14, 1000 ISO. Note that I needed significant depth of field to make sure the agama lizard was sharp from head to tail. Anything less would have been disappointing.
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