 Top News - June 2, 2007 |
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Lyle Aspinall/Gazette
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Photographer Corey Hochachka shows off the picture that won first place in the Professional Photographers of Canada National Print Competition wildlife and animal category. The photo was previously displayed at Profiles Public Art Gallery. |
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Local jumps into first place
Photographer enchanted by frog's song |
By Susan Jones
Staff Writer
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Photographer Corey Hochachka's workdays are enhanced by the singing of frogs and he often incorporates the creatures into his art. Now one of his photos of the tiny amphibians has placed first in a national competition.
"On my first entry into the Professional Photographers of Canada National Print Competition, my photo of a red-eyed tree frog earned Best of Class in the wildlife and animal category," he said.
Two of the red-eyed frogs share a terrarium in Hochachka's St. Albert studio along with a few poison-dart frogs and assorted lizards, toads and salamanders. A few years ago, with inspirational help from his son, Hochachka discovered how photogenic the amphibians are when shown with ordinary household objects and kids' toys.
His winning photo was previously displayed at Profiles Public Art Gallery. It depicts the little red-eyed frog as it climbs out of a blue glass. The frog is about one-inch long and very colourful. When you consider his ruby eyes, he looks like a walking rainbow because his back is emerald green, his underbelly is bright white and the undersides of the legs are sapphire coloured. Curiously, his little toes are light orange and he has three long digits and one shorter thumb-like digit on each foot, so it looks as if his hands are grasping the glass.
Any way you look at him, little red eye is cute. But the bumble-bee-coloured poison dart frogs are more interesting. Hochachka photographed these striking-looking creatures to make it appear as if they are riding tiny bicycles.
Hochachka, who is a member of the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society, explained that poison-dart frogs are not [as] poisonous in captivity.
"They come from Costa Rica and perhaps South America and the natives there used their poison on darts, but we think that their diet of red fire ants made them poisonous."
"The black and yellow [poison-dart] frogs are the best singers. They sing like a bird."
As Hochachka sprayed the inside of the terrarium with water, the frogs did indeed begin to sing with a sparrow-like chirruping noise.
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