I made another trip two days ago to my area outside of Shenandoah National Park. During my previous trip there I had found a Spring Salamander larvae. During this trip, I hoped to find an adult. I had no luck, but after flipping over hundreds of rocks I did find quite a few salamanders. This Northern Two-lined Salamander was perhaps my favorite of them all. He is certainly the prettiest of his species that I have ever seen.

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I really like this one. That certainly is a pretty salamander. I love how the slight yellow hues in the moss bring out the color on the salamander’s back.
Great one Chris! I really like this salamander series. You capture those little beasts really nicely
Thanks guys.
I have always wanted to photograph these guys. One thing I wondered about – did you use a polarizer here? Just wondering about the glare spots – as I have seen them eliminated in some images. I wasn’t sure if it was simply a lens polarization or the use of cross-polarized flashes.
Hey Mark,
I use a polarizer on my lens for all my salamander images. It seems most shoot with flashes at higher shutter speeds, but I just lock up my tripod, use a cable release, shoot at ISO 100 from about .5 seconds to 1 second on average, depending on the light. They move quickly when they do move, but most of the time they’re just sitting there. To completely eliminate glare, I do think cross-polarized is the way to go. I’m sure I’ll experiment with that at some point, though it’s a toss-up as to which look I prefer a lot of times … sometimes cross-polarized just looks so flat.
These are great Chris!
Ron
I know what you mean, I am sometimes torn between the two looks myself.