The advantages of having a Pro photographer as a friend

Yesterday afternoon, towards the end of an email conversation about a piece of photo editing software, I asked Will if he thought I could have a biscuit as I was hungry. The query being posed because of the proximity to dinner time.

The reply said:

the rain frog says go for it.

And so I did. Not that I had a Rich Tea, as instructed. But something struck me about the picture. I recognised the frog (having played with/tortured - depending on your point of view - many on the way back from Tiko's with Will over the past few weeks) and therefore its photo must have been taken in Zambia. Further, as it has Will's copyright at the bottom (he's clearly not very trusting) it must have been taken by Will - but where was his studio? I've been to the house many times and not seen the white sheets and reflectors needed to make this photo.

After dinner I found out. Geoff was on call and therefore doing a Laparotomy - standard. So I was invited over to Nat and Will's for company. In tow was Julie (one of the new doctors) keen to borrow the world's second largest mosquito net. On the front door when we arrived was a massive beetle - probably about 5 inches long with a good set of jaws on it. I pointed it out to Will when he opened the door and he asked if we wanted to photograph it. I said yes, I don't remember what Julie thought! She's not that keen on spider type things.

He scooped it up on his white screen (about 16 inches across) and replaced the screen (somewhat precariously) resting between the back of a chair and the dining table. Unfortunately the beetle was not keen on sitting still and immediately started charging about trying to get off the white area. I tried to control it with a torch whilst Will setup the flash under the screen and his camera. Julie and Nat were enlisted to add additional light using torches. By the time this was all arranged the beetle had escaped at least twice and had to be retrieved from various corners of the room. Needless to say it was no happier and continued to run around. By now I'd swapped the torch for a large spoon - hands were out of the question as the jaws were being put to good, if ineffectual, use. Will issued many commands about the positioning of the model - mostly that he wanted it running towards the camera. This was pretty much the only direction it didn't want to test for its big escape plan. I did offer to swap roles with Will to see if he would have more luck ;) Eventually we decided to give up.

Will took the beetle outside on the screen. The girls started to drink their tea. When the door opened again something brown came flying through the air and landed between Julie's feet. She immediately leapt out of her seat and ran off. It turns out it was a small brown frog - our next subject. The frog was only slightly more disposed to being photographed than the beetle. Julie took on the job of corralling it and was happily holding it in her hands when I asked how she knew it wasn't poisonous. She pointed out that Will had touched it - at which point Nat told her that Will has touched poison dart frogs intentionally in the past and therefore isn't always the best benchmark. To be fair to Julie's courage, this didn't make her let go of the frog! [I don't think there are poisonous frogs here, I just thought Julie should think about the possibility first!]

Shortly the frog was returned to the garden. On his way out Will had said he'd seen another pretty frog out there and was going to bring one in. He was gone a long time. We didn't bother to ask if he was OK, we carried on chatting and drinking tea. When he returned this time he was carrying a stick.... and on it was the largest chameleon we've seen in Katete. About a foot from nose to tip of extended tail. It was green and black - this is odd because at night they go pale green.... Will admitted that he might have annoyed it when waking it up. It wasn't keen on staying on the stick either and he yelled that the door should be shut quickly. Somehow this caused Nat to upset her tea into her handbag. This event must be recorded as entirely Will's fault. [I'm not quite sure why it's Will's fault and not an accident but I understand that this sort of thing happens a lot to husbands ;)].

We had even more fun trying to control the chameleon, probably because of its size. It set off up Will's T-shirt at one point - it has sharp claws and he now has a pierced nipple - then it went onto the curtain. Eventually we got it on the stick again and managed to keep it on there long enough to photograph. It did hiss a lot and threaten to bite us, in a way that was slightly more threatening than the beetle! Probably because he could keep an eye on two of us at once. Ultimately, Will decided that the chameleon was too big for the screen so he couldn't get a single shot of it with a solely white background. It was returned to the garden to go back to sleep.

After he'd forfeit some of his tea to Nat, we decided that that was enough fun for one evening. I know they have a large monitor lizard in their roof. I'm not sure I want to be an assistant when he decides to photograph that in his studio!!