Pigmy rattlesnake

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A young rattlesnake (less than a year old) foraging about a foot off of the ground on a fallen log. Sigma 180 5.6 macro, tripod, Velvia. Exposure unrecorded.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 13, 1999

Answers

Nice shot except for the two metal bars behind the snake which is quite distracting.

-- Alan (nature_sg@yahoo.com), April 13, 1999.

They're twigs, not metal bars. Still distracting, but no "hand of man" there. (Actually there is evidence of "hand of man" in the shot, but it would take a pretty keen eye and some insider knowledge to discern it. Any guesses, Joe?)

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 13, 1999.

I like the twigs. They make me think about the snake's position. Is it leaning on the twigs for support? Does it think they provide protection or additional camouflage? This shot really shows what fantastic camouflage this pretty little snake has -- the same snake against a plain background would look bright and colorful, but here it's almost invisible. Great job as usual, Peter.

There are two lightish objects in the background that distract a tiny bit, and maybe one of them is the "hand of man" that Peter mentioned. The least suspicious one is the horizontal line sticking out from the right edge of the frame -- probably a twig or other plant material, but perhaps a snake stick. The other is the yellow curved object right behind the center of the log -- flower?

-- John Sullivan (sullivan@spies.com), April 13, 1999.


i'm afraid this picture does nothing for me. I think it's stretching it to say that it is a good photo because it shows how good the snake's camouflage is. the background is distracting, the coil closest to the viewer appears to be out of focus. what am i missing?

-- richard mittleman (gon2foto@gte.net), April 13, 1999.

Peter: Well, I hate to break up the mood set by the previous poster, but I like the shot! (Couldn't resist) Sure, it has distracting elements, but I know from experience how hard it is to make their heads clearly visible, especially with these tiny snakes. All in all, a great job. As for the hand of man... It's the orange area above and to the left of the snake, methinks. :) Not a fair question, Peter.

-- Joe Cheatwood (cheatwoo@ufl.edu), April 13, 1999.


John - yeah, it is sort of "leaning" against the twigs. These guys often coil right against some (semi)solid object such as a clump of grass, tree trunk, log, twigs, etc. Probably increases the speed of the strike as it gives them something to brace against. Richard - if everybody had exactly the same take on every photo, there'd really be no point to this forum, would there? You're not missing anything - thanks. Joe - the orange object behind the snake is a leaf. I told you it was tough. This snake is marked - a little bit of white nail polish below the chin, and a bit of lime on the coil just behind the top of his head. I was hoping maybe you'd recognize little mid-white-lime-lime. You've been away too long. Thanks to all.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 14, 1999.

Peter: Dang, you're right. Well, in my defense, I'm ill and it was late when I posted. :)

-- Joe Cheatwood (cheatwoo@ufl.edu), April 14, 1999.

What confuses me about this photo is I can't find the snake's head! My mind takes in the image and I do a quick scan for the snake's head to orient it. A minute later I'm still stuck in that same loop! Is it at the very bottom of the image?

-- George Bell (gibell@geocities.com), April 15, 1999.

I guess this shot really does suck if it's that uninterpretable... the head is nearly in the middle of the frame about 1/3 of the width from the bottom, in front of the light brown leaf. Its a profilen shot. These guys generally coil with the head in a very cryptic position relative to the body coils, but I didn't realize this shot was quite that cryptic. The orientation of the animal seems immediately apparent to me, but then I took the picture. Okay - now I have a mission - photograph a pigmy so that the head and orientation of the body are immediately obvious to anyone - I'm on it.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), April 15, 1999.

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