Varanus Dwarfus picture thread

[varanus dwarfus]

Nothing too special to see here (yet)! My collection mainly consists of slings at this point, my camera is great but my lenses and lighting aren't too spectacular. I am going to order some cheap close up lenses to play with tonight and hopefully in the future I'll be able to take some better shots!

My first G. pulchripes not long after the first time he molted (while I had him).

How he sat a week or two ago (just moved into his new cage an hour prior to this photo, disregard the moistness of the soil):

A new G. pulchripes (I couldn't resist getting another! This one is about 1/4" and out of this world cute!)

B. angustum (this lil furball is quite fun to look at, lovely colors, around 1.75")

B. smithi (this one is about 1," I can't wait for the adult colors to start showing in the upcoming molts)

C. fasciatum (about 1")

Singapore Blue (about 1" and quite a furball, I love arboreals, I really do need some more)

GBB: about .75," I really regret buying only one. Once this one gets up to about 1.5" I will be ordering a few more I'm sure of it. This is my second favorite species when it comes to adult coloration (I love vibrant blues... so of course I have to go with the holey grail - P. metallica as my favorite!)

Hopefully there will be more pictures to come!

 

[Teal]

Those are some great Ts!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

Thanks! I ordered a "close up" lens tonight after a bit of research. Should be here around the end of the week. Hopefully I can get some better photos of all the lil guys!

 

[Mad Hatter]

Oh, nice Ts you have there! I love slings. It's great to start them out small and watch them grow - very rewarding too.

That B. angustum just looks amazing!

And... you're right - the little G. pulchripes sling is SO cute!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

I agree with you completely. So far the thing that I've enjoyed most in this hobby is raising slings. Watching them change colors and explode in size with every early molt is a blast!

Thanks for the compliment on the angustum. It's pretty bright, I hope the vagans can compete with it when they get bigger!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

I thought I'd give one of those nifty container store cubes a try (I have been using their "shoeboxes" for my larger Chaco). These things are extremely easy to drill into! On this particular cube I drilled a dozen holes on the sides and about 3 dozen in the lid. I'll add more substrate later but don't plan to add a hide as this is a temporary enclosure only designed as a more clear vial-replacement for slings.

C. Fasciatum again:

Looks like I got the DOF a bit wrong.

Here's a full res crop for grins:

 

[varanus dwarfus]

Still trying to figure out this new lens add-on lens but here are some photos for kicks.

1" C. Fasciatum

1/4" G. Pulchripes

 

[The Spider Faery]

Still trying to figure out this new lens add-on lens but here are some photos for kicks.

1" C. Fasciatum

This one's very good!

 

[MissChelly]

That new lens is CRAZY GOOD. Wow. Your new G. pulchripes is so teeny weeny cute!!

 

[Mattyb]

Very nice collection!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

Thanks, hopefully I start getting some molts soon (I'd think with this many slings it should be a nearly weekly occurance if they are anything like my chaco - who for the first 6 months molted every 3-6 weeks). I can't wait for these guys to start getting some more color and patterning!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

I picked up a new camera while the board was down. It's MUCH better than my last one (which I was actually loaning). Unfortunately I do not have a decent close up lens and have NO macro lens for it yet! So for a little while my shots will not be in the same realm of quality as the later photos. Here is an example...

Old set up: Konica Minolta 5d, 70-210mm lens with Raynox DCR-150 close-up lens @ 160mm. (Fairly cheap old camera, cheap OLD lens, cheap but WONDERFUL bang for the buck 3 element close-up lens).

pre-molt C. Cyaneopubescens

--------------------------------------------------------

Post-molt (same T)

New set up: Canon 50d, 70-200mm F/2.8 L, Tiffen +1 diopter close up lens (single element garbage close up lens). All it takes is one piece of glass to bring the rest of your gear down!

I should also mention, the first photo has been printed at 8x10" and came out stunning. The photo didn't need to be cropped one bit whereas the 2nd one did need heavy cropping and I wouldn't bother making it into a business card...

 

[Redneck]

Wow those are awesome shots... Ugh! I gotta get a GBB one day.. LoL! Awesome collection!

 

[varanus dwarfus]

Thanks! Everyone needs a GBB, they are so much fun!

 

[Teal]

Cute lil GBB! Love the carapace markings

 

[varanus dwarfus]

Well... I ordered a new lens and tripod head about 2 months ago. The day I received the tripod head a woman decided to run a red light and put an end to my car (which I just spent way too much money fixing up...). Anyway, that's another story. Now that I've finally got a bit of time I decided to put the new lens to use, still need better lighting in a very bad kind of way... but here's a start. Should have some more photos soon!

G. Pulchripes decided to take a stroll while I was shooting (perhaps wasn't fond of the flash)

B. Angustum in it's new shoebox home (wasn't happy to move out of the old one...)

 

[varanus dwarfus]

A few days ago the G. Pulchripes pictured above molted. I thought it was a female but he's showing hooks .

Some of the molt process:

Today he looks like this:

So I did the only proper thing I thought was fair to do. I got him a girlfriend! I went up to Ken The Bug Guy's place and picked up a freshly molted (2010.02.27) G. Pulchripes female! She looks pretty big, time to fatten her up!

While I was there I couldn't help but pick up some other things.

Everyone needs a G. Rosea, right? At a mere $20 I couldn't resist this little one (I'm not a fan of Rosea's in general but... I figured it was time!)

He had one A. Versicolor sling left. it's about 1" and thinks it's devils incarnate (the first thing that went near it was immediately tagged). It is backlit in this photo so it does look a bit odd!

I've been wanting an N. Chromatus for a while so I picked up two 0.25" leg span slings. Super cute and oh so tiny!

Non invert related...

I also got a nice fat order of cork bark in from bean farm. They are A+ on pricing and quality. I asked for large pieces and I got large pieces! (The lizards are Varanus Tristis Tristis)

 

[varanus dwarfus]

One of my B. Smithi's molted out about a week ago. It's finally starting to show a little patterning and color.

The Versicolor has created a nice web!