Note: Most of these are very large images, so that you can see all the detail in the photo. I have cropped many of these pictures to help reduce the size of the image, but have not resized anything. Most of these pictures are in a ratio of size suitable for desktop backgrounds. (4:3 ratio)
Click a thumbnail to see the full-size image. If you want the full-size image to open in a new window, hold down the shift key when you click on a picture.
This is a wood frog. They are a common frog in Michigan, and live in the woods, hence their name. They mate in ponds that are surrounded by a woods, and afterwards they will leave the pond and for the rest of the summer can be found throughout the woods.
Floating in the water.
Frog in the swim position.
Frog in the swim position.
Frog in the swim position.
This is what the pond looks like as I look across it, zoomed in to show the frogs better. When you are scanning for the frogs, you look for the little heads which are the only thing out of the water.
Another zoom across the pond.
Two wood frogs in amplexus. I am sure that those who are unfamiliar with that term will be able to figure out what it means from this picture. This shot is nice because the eggs, which are the end result, are also in the photo.
My first night-time frog photography was awesome. Using my trusty point and shoot camera, I just happened to take this picture as one frog decided to get on the other one.
If the shot before was lucky, than this is a miracle! I shot this picture just as these two wood frogs, in amplexus, decided to go underwater to hide from me. Only about half underwater when the camera took the picture, you can see air bubbles and their closed eyes, which they seem to do as they first go underwater. This is one of my favorite frog photos.
Two wood frogs in amplexus out of the water. This was a first for me, usually I find that wood frogs mate in the water. This picture was one of many pictures I took when I went out during a rainy night. I assume the night and the rain combined were what encouraged them to come out of the water. Frogs tend to be a bit nocturnal, and so are more active at night. I am not nocturnal, however, so this was my first night frog photography experience.
A lower view of them.
This horrifying photo is of something that is fairly common with the wood frogs. It is called, appropriately, multiple amplexus. Apparently the frogs are so desperate to pass their DNA on that they sometimes lose control of themselves. If is not uncommon for some of the frogs in this ball of frogs to actually be killed during this event.
Another shot of the multiple amplexus. Sometimes when I find this they are all attached to each other and are just floating around, but this group was more active, moving sporadically around the pond, with some of the outside frogs jumping on and off frequently. This shot has more frogs participating than in the first photo. This is certainly one of the more bizarre events I have seen in the natural world.
Most examples of amplexus proceed normally, like in this shot.
More amplexus.
Amplexus in the reeds. Eggs are usually laid near logs or reeds.
Another wood frog that I found out of the pond at night. I was sneaking up on a different frog to get its picture when I noticed this one looking up at me!
The same frog after it moved a bit.
Resting on a log.
A single frog is hiding in the reeds.
Moving into the pond, I was able to fit these two frogs into one picture.
Close up on one of the two frogs from the previous picture.
This wood frog decided to climb out of the water for whatever reason.
As I was leaving for the night I found this wood frog hiding underwater from me. The way their eyes work under water makes them look dead when they are hiding which is probably a good thing for helping them survive.
A wood frog peeks out of a pond.
A wood frog floats in a pond.
A wood frog swims to a place where I had just walked.
A wood frog sits on some leaves in the pond.
A newly transformed wood frog sits in the muddy remains of the pond, which dries up. They key to survival for wood frogs and other temporary waters frogs is to complete transformation before all the water is gone! Growth in terms of size continues well after a tadpole becomes a frog; this is a very small frog: use the sprout as a size comparison.
Another shot of the baby wood frog. You can see the remains of the tadpole tail is still showing a bit, in the form of an extended tailbone.
Another view.
