Creative Reactions - We're all going on a frog hunt

For a number of years I have taken part in Creative Reactions. We are matched with a scientist and need to respond to their work. Having little practical artistic ability away from my camera, I always find this a fun challenge to create something without having a straightforward subject as I do in my family/corporate shoots.

This year I was matched with Dr. Silviu Petrovan who talked me through his area of research. This time the challenge was very interesting - frogs and an, as yet, unbuilt, app. Frogs are mainly found at night which isn't so great light wise given speed of movement and also were tricky to find. The unbuilt app was more of a concept rather than a real thing to photograph. So initially this presented a good challenge for this photographer.

His research has confirmed that the same frog will keep the same pattern of pigmentation as it grows meaning that it should be easy to track, using AI, the same individual across the years. So I already knew during our conversation I wanted to play around with patterns, frogs and potentially AI/technology.

Dr. Silviu Petronas (Lucinda Price Photography)

I started playing around with ideas, initially thinking about adding frog skin to a protrait of Silviu, however having done this to my own image I was personally finding it a bit creepy and also unpleasant. I came to the conclusion that frog skin is great on a frog but not elsewhere! The colours and patterns were quite dark, green and slimy so this wasn't something I wanted to progress with. The 'skin' in the image below actually comes from a frog in Silviu's garden.

Lucinda Price with frog skin

Following on from this first concept I then came up with the idea of creating a frog hunt. I liked how I was able to use Silviu's images, meaning the project is a collaboration between us; a little like how the app will use photographs from users and technology/science from the developers/researchers. This also had the side benefit of saving me roaming around Cambridge wetlands in the dark hunting frogs!

I played around and managed to add some of Dr. Silviu's frogs into a grassy image taken in my own garden. If you look really closely you should find up to 7 frogs within the image. You can click on the image to view it in a larger format. I'm planning at the exhbition that people will walk up to the image and find the frogs as they get closer, a little like they might do in their own gardens when hunting frogs for the app.

I also wanted to incorporate the use of phones and to enhance the frog hunt, created smaller frogs to be dotted around the exhibition encouraging attendees to use their phones to click on the QR code to find out more. When I mentioned this idea to Dr. Silviu he reminded me that most people using the app will be tracking the frogs in their garden and tracking a few individuals, so I then made sure the wider frog hunt used the same frog with different images taken over the years. I personally found this really interesting seeing the patterns staying the same over the years.

Image of frog taken by Dr. Silviu Petrovan

This is the same frog photographed over a number of years by Dr. Silviu Petrovan

The frog hunt also appealled to me for another reason. As a child I had a frog ornament collection although I no longer actively collect frogs as an adult. Recently my mother gifted me a brass frog but liked it so much we agreed to share ownership, consequently this has now turned into me finding this brass frog (and a few more that have joined the 'family') in odd places everytime they come to visit. I return this favour by 'stealing' and hiding frogs around her house too!

I hope you've enjoyed the frog hunt - if you found this page via that route.

If you would like to purchase the grass print, please do get in contact. Digital download £50, print pricing details upon request. I can also create a bespoke hidden image (perhaps a family member or pet) - price upon request.