World Photography Day: The Surprise Garden Visitor

18 August 2020

To celebrate how photography can help with our mental health and particularly mindfulness, volunteer Paul wrote about a recent experience with a camera.

Recently I decided to clean the patio area within my garden. I started to move some of the garden furniture off the patio area when something small and green started moving towards me! I was unsure as to what this was but as soon as it stopped moving its identity unfolded before me.

I was pleasantly surprised to meet a common frog. This frog was quite large – around 8cm in length and was an olive-green colour with dark blotches.

As soon as I had identified the frog, it continued hopping on its way towards the garden lawn. Once the frog had reached the grassed area it was camouflaged amongst it.

I rushed indoors to grab my camera to take some photos.

When I returned with my camera, I got down to low level to take some images. I wanted to capture some macro shots (making small things look much larger in life) as mentioned in one of my previous blog posts.

Whilst the frog rested amongst the grass, I noticed it was breathing in and out slowly as it caught its breath before suddenly jumping what looked like 5cm into the air and travelling some distance as it went.

The frog must have been tired with all the hoping that it did as it travelled from one end of my garden to the other before hiding under a bush.

I only managed to take a few images of the frog as it was on the move most of the time.

Taking these images it brought me back to living in the moment and capturing the beauty of nature.

I hope to meet this frog again in the future.