those photos vibe "lizard" to me.

esp if he and mate were getting acquainted outside the water.

I can't tell the difference

Salamanders have very smooth, perpetually moist skin, and prefer lounging on stream banks and under leaf litter to dry, sunny rocks.



They spend a lot of time in the water, and some species never even lose their juvenile gills (cf tadpoles), remaining aquatic their whole lives.

Even if I mis-ID'd a lizard as a salamander..

Are you in Greece, Turkey or the Middle East?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudakia_stellio

Nice pics.

Which is close to Turkey also.

So that could easily be it. I'm not a herpetologist but did know one in a previous life.

I really like your technique: sharp closeups with the fuzzy background. Very cool.

The close focus zoom does that well.