European wood ants are not easy to photograph as they are fast and always busy doing stuff for their colony. I tried to make good photos of these beautiful ants often, but this time I literally focused on them very patiently using a full frame camera and a 180mm macro lens.
Photo taken with the Pentax K1 II and the Sigma 180mm F3.5 EX DG APO Macro.
The Eastern Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis) is a very rare reptile species in Germany. It is one of the largest lizards in Europe and is certainly one of the most beautiful animals to be found in Germany. However, it is not easy to find it and that is a good thing, because it is strictly protected and threatened with extinction, especially in East Germany.
During late spring and early summer the males of these reptiles have very great colors with blue or turquoise colored heads and light green bodies.
The escape distance of these rare animals is quite high, but in some cases you can get so close to it that you can take a portrait of her using a macro lens.
Photo taken May 2021 using the Pentax K1 II and the Pentax 150 – 450 mm F4.5-5.6 zoom lens.
Great crested grebes are enchanting-looking water birds and certainly one of the most popular photo opportunities for nature photographers.
However, especially during the mating season, these elegant birds can also become extremely uncomfortable with one another.
Photos were taken with the Pentax K3 III and the Pentax 150-450 mm F4.5-5.6 in Berlin Spandau.
The mandarin duck is a particularly beautiful duck that originally came from East Asia. Due to its splendor of colors, it was kept as a pet in Europe, but was then also able to spread into the wild.
These photos were taken in Berlin Spandau. Despite their familiarity with humans, the animals are more shy than mallards and must therefore be photographed with a telephoto lens.
I used the Pentax K1 II and the Pentax 300mm F4.
The tiger snake is a very photogenic snake that occurs in China, Korea and Japan and impresses with its intense colors of green and red.
The snake likes to live near lakes and rivers, feed on fish, amphibians and other reptiles that it hunts in or near water. The snake is considered venomous because it processes the poison of its preferred food, the common toad, and can chew this poison into bite wounds. Although it does not have poisonous fangs like a viper, the bite is certainly not to be underestimated.
Furthermore it is poisonous as it also has the peculiarity of bein able to squeeze out the poison from the head via a poison gland, so that predators such as foxes can be repelled.
Photos were taken 2018 with the Pentax K3 II and the Pentax 150-450mm F4.5-5.6.