Tiny frog, giant lily pad

July 16, 2015 by Mike Powell

Safe inside the confines of an enormous lily pad, this little frog calmly watched the crowds of people last weekend in Washington D.C. at the Lotus and Water Lily Festival at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens.

You can’t help but noticed that this is not your average lily pad. I believe that it is a tropical variety that comes from the Amazon River basin of the genus Victoria, possibly Amazonica victoria. According to Wikipedia, the leaves of this species can grow as large as 10 feet in diameter (3 meters), although this one was probably less than three feet (one meter) in size. Clearly it had no problem supporting the weight of the little frog.

Readers who follow my photography know that I love to try to get in close to my subjects, irrespective of whether I am shooting with a telephoto lens or a macro lens, and this was no exception. There was a waist-high wire fence around the cement pond in which the water lilies were growing, so I had some limitations in framing my shots, but did manage to get this shot of the frog looking over the edge of lily pad.

11 Responses

on July 16, 2015 at 6:25 am | Reply Victor Rakmil

Great capture!
on July 16, 2015 at 7:36 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

There is a famous photo of a little girl standing in the middle of one of those lily pads, so they can support quite a lot of weight. The underside is very spiny and you can see a bit of that in the second photo.
The frog looks a bit bewildered.
on July 16, 2015 at 8:41 am | Reply joeschelling

I tend to get as close as I can, too, Mike, but sometimes it does pay to step back – that first shot of the tiny frog in the vastness of its world is just terrific!
on July 16, 2015 at 11:56 am | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

I love both photos. The second is a wonderful portrait of a lively frog but the first contextualises it and achieves something wonderful with the scales of lily pad and frog.

As an aside, my sister once tried to stand on such a lily pad at Edinburgh’s botanic gardens imagining it would support her weight. It didn’t.
- on July 17, 2015 at 4:56 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Laura. That’s a funny story about your sister. I’ve heard that the only way that they can support much weight is if it is distributed over a wide area.
on July 16, 2015 at 12:27 pm | Reply Ed

Great shot, a king and his castle.. 😉
- on July 16, 2015 at 5:14 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  My pad or yours?
on July 16, 2015 at 7:25 pm | Reply Lee

Great photos! Lucky catch to even spot the little critter.
on July 17, 2015 at 5:51 pm | Reply Ginny Alfano

Wow!! Well you know how I feel about these shots, Mike 🙂 .Absolutely great photos. That’s quite a lily pad shuttle that little guy has! So glad you shared these.
- on July 17, 2015 at 8:35 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks Ginny.
on July 25, 2015 at 5:00 pm | Reply Sue

Great shots, Mike!