King Geoffrey – a Green Frog wearing a tiny handmade cardboard crown.

When King Geoffrey arrived at Rachael’s Studio she was amazed at how tiny he was, Rachael had been expecting a larger New Zealand Green Frog and had premade a cardboard crown to use in the photograph…..but King Geoffrey fitted his entire body inside the crown. So Rachael set to making a new crown, this one needed to be small enough to fit the circumference of Rachael’s little finger, tiny. Frogs have extremely sensitive skin, the acid in human hands can burn them if we touch them so it is important to only ever handle a frog with wet hands, this stops the acid from penetrating the Frog's skin. It was a VERY slippery and entertaining process for Rachael to capture a portrait of King Geoffrey, every time she wet her hands to pick him up to place him on the background he would leap around making it impossible for Rachael to catch him. When he was finally on the background and just about to have his crown placed on his head he leaped again this time straight onto the camera. Finally, Rachael managed to get him to settle for long enough on the background for her to place the crown on his head, he then just froze in position giving Rachael plenty of time to focus and capture this gorgeous portrait.

This image was published in Rachael’s book It’s a Zoo Out There.

King Geoffrey was photographed on Rachael’s 4x5 inch Toyo View Camera with TMAX 100 B&W film using a large Elinchrom Octa Studio Flash.

Rachael recommends this image be framed using a White or Black Frame, with or without a white border.