Chris Kayler Photography

As mentioned in my previous post, Kari and I went on a herping trip to the Delaware Water Gap NRA a few days ago. The Longtail Salamander was a target species, and with the help of our friend Jeff, easily found. These large, beautiful salamanders are a species that I had been hoping to find ever since beginning my search for reptiles and amphibians. While they do occur in Virginia, it seems I needed to head up north to find one of their strongholds.

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Kari and I went on a day trip two days ago to meet up with some herpers in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The weather was absolutely horrible for reptiles and amphibians - cold and rainy - but we gave it a go anyways. Despite the weather, the day turned out to be great. Species found included Long-tailed Salamander, Black Racer, Northern Ringneck Snake, Northern Slimy Salamander, Northern Redback Salamander, Northern Two-lined Salamander, Spring Peeper, and this beauty, an adult Eastern Milk Snake. Strikingly patterned and relatively rare, these guys are surely among my favorite snakes.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

Due to high winds, rain, and cold temperatures, I’ve decided to postpone my planned West Virginia trip. Instead, I am spending some time in New Jersey with my girlfriend Kari until we head out to Pennsylvania next weekend to meet up with some herping friends (people who study reptiles/amphibians). Yesterday, we made a day trip out to the New Jersey Pine Barrens to meet up with a friend to try and find some some herps. It ended up being an awesome day, with 4 new species of herps photographed. This salamander, a Northern Red, was found near the end of a day. After searching intently in seemingly great Northern Red Salamander habitat for months, I had finally succeeded in finding this species in the most unlikely location, under a pile of cement! No problem, I’ll take what I can get.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

On the same morning as my previous post, before traveling to Shenandoah National Park, I also photographed some Gray Tree Frogs that I had captured the night before. Gray Tree Frogs, like chameleons, have the capability to change colors (albeit more slowly). This guy changed from the normal gray appearance to a brown color, and matched up perfectly with the dark brown bark of this tree.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

A bit of news today before this post. I was out looking for snakes under rocks today, and one fell on my finger and then proceeded to slip off, giving me a nasty wound and a broken finger. After 6 hours in the E.R., I’m finally home and able (barely, attempting to type with this finger brace is beyond annoying) to post some of my recent results here on my blog. Now, onto the good stuff.

This image is from a rainy 6 mile loop hike down Doyles River and up Jones Run in Shenandoah National Park. It was a tough hike, but the high water levels and new spring growth made it more than worth my time. This particular photograph is of a small, but beautiful cascade a few hundred feet downstream from Doyles River Falls. I had to stand thigh-deep in the creek to get this perspective, and think it was worth it. Many times, a nature photographer has got to get dirty to get the shot!

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

A good friend of mine recently found a Red Fox den in Delaware, and invited me up to photograph the babies. Wow, how cute they were. In this photograph two of the youngest kits are playing with each other right outside the entrance of their den. I just love photographing baby animals, and these Red Fox kits are certainly among the cutest!

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I photographed this species for the first time a couple of days ago at a park in the southern Piedmont of Virginia. Pictures, mine included, just don’t do these guys justice. They are large and strikingly beautiful in person. Unfortunately, they are just about impossible to photograph! I found 7 of them before I managed to get some pictures. Upon lifting a rock where one is hiding, they will flip and flop like crazy until they land in the stream, gone forever (to me). The Three-lined Salamander in this photograph actually let me photograph him as I removed the rock. I would have preferred a different setting, but as soon as I touched him he did the same routine as all his previous buddies. I’ll definitely have to get back there to get some more images of this awesome salamander.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

This image is a couple weeks old, but one that I have yet to post on my blog. It is from a trip to a local nature preserve here in Virginia, and this individual was the first of this species that I had ever found. The slimy salamander is a large, and well, slimy, salamander. In this photograph, I liked the way the lichens on the rock echoed the spots on his skin.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

Yesterday I decided to take a little trip up to Maryland to explore Catoctin Mountain/Cunningham Falls State Park. I spent a few years of my childhood growing up just miles from the park, and visited regularly. Considering I was just a little boy the last time I had visited, it seems I had forgotten how beautiful it was there. I found myself engrossed in the sounds of the bubbling creeks and the sights of the large hemlock trees. Photographic opportunities existed around every corner. This particular image is of Big Hunting Creek, one of the larger creeks that drains the area. In the lower elevations this section of the creek is particular turbulent and photogenic.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

This is another photograph from my trip to Thompson Wildlife Management Area, Virginia several days ago. The fog was outstanding and this flowering dogwood was the perfect compliment to it. I had to wait around a bit as the fog was constantly changing from very dense fog to light fog. In this image, the foreground is less foggy than the background, thanks to the movement of the fog.

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During my trip to Thompson Wildlife Management Area yesterday, I came across this little guy walking across the Appalachian Trail. I grabbed him for a quick photo shoot and got many images in different settings. Just 2 days before finding this Newt, I was talking with a friend about how I needed to get some whole body shots of newts (I only had portraits). Funny how things work out! Now … I could really use some pictures of Black Bears.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

With the unexpected surprise of a low cloud base (600 ft above ground level), I decided to head out to the mountains to make my way up to higher elevations for some dense fog photography. The timing turned out to be perfect, as the Large-flowered Trilliums at Thompson Wildlife Management Area are in peak bloom, carpeting the forest floor. The bloom at Thompson WMA is thought to be the largest bloom of Large-flowered Trillium in the United States, with literally millions of flowers spouting to life during mid-Spring. While this event is amazing in person, it can be difficult to photograph due to the scraggly, dense underbrush throughout the woods. Thanks to the fog, the forest was simplified slightly and I was able to get several images that I like.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I went out hunting for snakes with a friend yesterday and had some success. Previously, my only snake photos to speak of where of Black Rat Snakes and Northern Water Snakes. I really wanted to find some other species, so months ago I began the process of learning how to find various snakes. With the help of my friend, I was able to find two new species - the Ringneck Snake, and the Eastern Worm Snake. While the average length of Eastern Worm Snakes are anywhere from 7 to 11 inches, this little guy was tiny - the smallest my friend had ever seen. Surely a hatchling, his markings were still the same as a full grown adult, and I found him quite striking, especially the coral colored belly.

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P.S. - Sorry about the snake, Grandma!

This is another image from my latter trip to Shenandoah National Park last weekend. It had been raining off and on for days, and the entire scene was soaked in water. Because of this, the colors of the Redbud and spring foliage really intensified and set apart these images versus other ones I had taken earlier in dry conditions. Many times the slightest differences in conditions make the biggest differences in the final image.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

During my 300 miles of driving to and through Shenandoah National Park this past weekend, I was able to obtain many images of Eastern Redbud - a beautiful flowering tree here in Virginia. In this photograph, the sun was rising behind a mountain, leaving the tree in shade. Contrary to complete overcast light, this light provided a great directional quality as well as a slight blue cast. While it is likely I would have liked this image if taken in overcast light, I think the shadowed light provides a unique quality which I find really beautiful.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

With the recent days of heavy rain, all of the local waterways were extremely high or flooded. After waiting a day for waters to recede ever so slightly, yet still maintain a good volume of water, I figured today was the perfect day to check out a new location for me - Difficult Run. Difficult run is a tributary of the Potomac River and is located within a few miles of Great Falls National Park, Virginia. Once arriving at the stream, I discovered that the heavy flow of water and large boulders turned out to be a beautiful combination. So beautiful in fact, that the brown water didn’t even seem too bad! Add some freshly emerging spring foliage to the mix, and it turned out to be a great day. I’ll definitely be back to this park in the future.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

I went to Shenandoah yesterday with the goal of photographing flowering Eastern Redbud and Dogwoods along Skyline Drive and surrounding roads in Shenandoah National Park. The trip turned out to be well worth the drive, as the flowering trees were in peak condition along the lower elevations. In this photograph, I captured the emerging spring foliage among several large tree trunks, with one small Redbud included in the frame. I had photographed this scene at about 10am in the morning, when the sun shone brightly and backlit all the trees. I liked the look, but decided to head back to this location yet again when 3pm came about and clouds had moved in. It turns out that even overcast light made all the difference, and I greatly prefer this image over the one I had taken earlier.

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I decided to head out yet again this morning to Bull Run Regional Park. With several consecutive days of warm and sunny temperatures, the leaves have really begun to come out in force here. Freshly emerging leaves and buds in the spring time seem to be one of the most understated and under appreciated shows in nature. While they may not be as showy as the large swaths of color found in autumn, I find the colors to be breathtaking, especially after a long brown winter, and especially with the sun providing backlight and causing the the various hues of leaves, buds, and flowers to take on a glowing appearance. In this photograph, I utilized the harsh sunlight to backlight the leaves and showcase the array of colors.

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This image is from last week during a 6 mile hike up Bull Run. The flowers were out in force, including Virginia Bluebell, Carolina Springbeauty, Violets, Bloodroot, and more. However, my favorite of the bunch would have to be the small and understated Trout Lily. With leaves patterned like a trout’s belly, things only get better when you get a chance to see one in bloom. They are generally hard to photograph, as they droop down towards the ground, but if you lay down you are treated to quite a view. I always enjoy seeing them come up after a long winter!

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com

During a trip last week to Bull Run Regional Park, I heard many calls coming from the surrounding swamps next to the trail. They seemed to come from some sort frog or toad, but I could not get a clear view of any of the organisms in question. Then, while crossing a small boardwalk on my way back to the car, I spotted a group of American Toads in a small pool attempting to mate with one another. There was a “ball” of 4 or 5 toads jumping on top of each other and swimming around in the heat of courtship. I immediately hopped down into the stagnant, muddy waters and began photographing them. I obtained images of two toads in amplexus (mating), and also got images of males calling on their own. While it was a muddy experience that no doubt ruined and smelled up my shoes, I’m glad I was able to experience this short-lived event, and am certainly happy with the photographs I got.

To order this print or purchase stock rights please contact me. To view additional photos for sale please visit my website at www.chriskaylerphotography.com