Brown-Toad-and-Leaf.jpg

Spencer says: I took this photo a few years ago, and it has a bit of a story behind it. I found this toad while a friend and I were taking pictures of plants for a school presentation, so I had my whole camera kit with me. Back then, I was still trying to figure out the optimal lighting setup for macro photography, and I was experimenting with holding my flash off camera (along with a huge diffuser I made out of cardboard and a paper towel). Here, the benefit of this method is that I was able to give my flash to my friend while I photographed the toad, and he scrambled to hold it in front for very dramatic lighting. It almost looks like it was taken in a studio, which I find very funny, because it was perhaps the most amateurish and chaotic setup of any macro photo I’ve ever taken.