I often encounter snakes on my travels but they typically slither away too fast for any photo opportunities.
More recently I have been seeing some black rat snakes fairly frequently (including juveniles in the garden) but getting anything reasonable from the camera has proved impossible. They are too fast and well camouflaged, and hard to get close to.
However I was at a park recently resting on a boardwalk when I spotted this guy:
Gorgeous pearlescent scales.
Thing is with snakes they are really long, a 2:1 aspect ratio works better:
Even better the snake had spotted a young pond turtle:
There is a very slight softness to the head because this is the precise millisecond the snake started to strike. Sadly no striking photo, the turtle got away
Shot with a D800 and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.
More recently I have been seeing some black rat snakes fairly frequently (including juveniles in the garden) but getting anything reasonable from the camera has proved impossible. They are too fast and well camouflaged, and hard to get close to.
However I was at a park recently resting on a boardwalk when I spotted this guy:
Gorgeous pearlescent scales.
Thing is with snakes they are really long, a 2:1 aspect ratio works better:
Even better the snake had spotted a young pond turtle:
There is a very slight softness to the head because this is the precise millisecond the snake started to strike. Sadly no striking photo, the turtle got away
Shot with a D800 and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.
