Lizards In Love

Working in a busy suburb of a major city, you don’t really expect to see a lot of wildlife, so one of my favorite things about my last temporary job was the location.

A small business park that backed up to a large wooded area afforded me plenty of opportunity for bird watching and seeing squirrels skitter about. There was even an early morning encounter with a small doe.

The animal I saw the most of however were the lizards. They seemed to love the bushes and iron railing fronting my office building. Once I realized this I made it a habit to look for them, and, when time allowed, take a photo or ten.

All in all, I amassed about 600 photos of birds, squirrels, insects, and the lizards in my brief time at that job. Sadly, I was not fast enough on the draw to get a picture of the deer.

One of my favorite photos is of a little guy perched on my windshield wiper, snapped, of course, after I had nearly driven out of the complex with him. Let me tell you, it’s hard to chase a tiny lizard off of your car. They’re fast, wily buggers. I think I spent half of my lunch hour with a bit of tree branch, just chasing him around the outside of my car.

When it came to choosing a photo for this challenge, though, one particular photo from that bunch popped into my head. It’s one I’ve wanted to do something with ever since I took it. I mean, it’s not everyday that you come across a pair of mating lizards.

Are they not gorgeous and perfect?

I named them Rizzo and Kenickie, because I’m weird like that.

I love how completely unfazed they were by my presence. I definitely feel like I was getting the side eye from Kenickie.

“Can’t you see we're in the middle of something here, Lady?”

But, hey, they’re the ones that chose to make out on the iron railing in full view of God, the birds, and any old human that walked by. I mean, there were perfectly good bushes not even a foot away.

Added to that, I’m pretty sure I was coming back from picking up lunch and had to juggle a bag, drink, my purse, and my phone to get the picture. They just kept right on about their business and I’m so glad they did.

I got my pic, told them to carry on, and went on in to eat my lunch. As I ate, I made up a story for them. He’s been courting her for weeks and she finally said yes. Sure, they have their life of privacy and peace in the bushes, but nobody likes to be cooped up all the time. They like the feel of the sun on their scales and having that railing all to themselves. Humans fascinate her, especially the ones that talk to her when she’s sunning herself, and she doesn’t care when they’re around. I like to think they’re still there, living in the bushes, and raising babies together.

Of course, after utilizing google-fu, I am fairly confident they are Green Anole, and they do not raise their young, but hey, a girl can dream.

The picture was taken with an iPhone XR and adjusted within the photo app by cropping to 4:3 and zooming in on the lovers. I made the adjustments listed below to add a bit more depth to the photo and allow the greens to pop more.

• Crop: 4:3
• Shadows: 50
• Brightness: 24
• Black point : -5
• Saturation: 20
• Warmth: -10
• Tint: -6
• Highlights: -11