Northern Dusky Salamander on a Mossy Rock
I’ve been working on a project recently: photographing salamanders. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved heading out to the woods and turning over rocks and logs in search of salamanders. Back behind my grandparent’s house, I remember finding countless Red-backed Salamanders. Now, with a bit more knowledge and resources (a salamander book and a car) I have been out searching for new and exciting species. There are so many to uncover, and within 2 outings I’ve already photographed 3 species. The following, a Northern Dusky Salamander has been my favorite so far. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to a mountain stream just outside of Shenandoah which I think should be prime salamander habitat. Hopefully I’ll come back with some new species, but at the very least I’ll have a fun time pretending to be a kid again. Who needs to grow up, anyways?
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Josh Gahagan on 31 Mar 2008 at 7:44 pm #
Chris,
This is absolutely wonderful. The pose and the mossy habitat look great. Did you place him there?
Chris Kayler on 31 Mar 2008 at 7:54 pm #
Hi Josh,
Yeah, I found this nice mossy rock and placed him on it. I try to photograph them where I find them, but usually it is just nasty mud and such. I figure, they come out at night time to hunt above ground and this moss was all over his habitat, so, if taken at night, it would be feasible to find him on a rock like this. It’s prettier this way anyways!
Kari Post on 31 Mar 2008 at 9:11 pm #
Beautiful herp shot. I can’t wait to photograph sallies with you!
Joe Rossbach on 01 Apr 2008 at 9:03 am #
Nice shot, Chris. Good luck finding your images. Joe
Ron Niebrugge on 01 Apr 2008 at 11:16 am #
That is a really nice image - love the background. This could become a great niche for you Chris.
Ron
Chris Kayler on 06 Apr 2008 at 3:10 pm #
Thanks guys.
Hey Ron, It certainly might be a niche, but how profitable? Not very, I’m sure. That’s okay, I still love the little guys.
Ron Niebrugge on 07 Apr 2008 at 11:48 am #
You never know. I say if you enjoy it, photograph it. At least when you do get a request for a Northern Dusky Salamander, you will know most people won’t have it.
Funny, you mentioned having books on cactus when you were about 10 - I had books on salamanders and reptiles when I was about the same age - so I was a similarly “weird” kid.
I still haven’t seen a salamander in person - they don’t live in Alaska, but I am enjoying your images of them!
Ron
Chris Kayler on 07 Apr 2008 at 3:28 pm #
That’s very true about not a lot of people having them. I’m up there on google for all these species just from these posts. I’ve gotta get a real stock gallery up though.
Man, I had just about every audobon guide and then some when I was a kid. We really aren’t weird … all the others that didn’t like nature are!