Warming Place

Gallery: WildlifePosted May 17, 2011172 views6 comments

I found this guy in a crack between two large rocks warming himself. We were hiking a trail in the Kalob section of Zion National Park. He was very sluggish because he didn't even twitch while I was shotting. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Canon 30D
Sigma 70-300
Aperture Priority
Shutter 1/180
Aperture f16
ISO 250
300 mm
-1/2 Exposure Comp.
Cropped some off the bottom for comp.
Some minor post processing in PSE

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Anand Narayanan on May 17, 2011 at 1:02 PM

Details on the head looks nice. Love how the colouration of the eye matches the environs. The slit eye gives it a killer look !

Registered on October 25, 2009, 110 Posts, 835 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on May 17, 2011 at 2:34 PM

Larger version is great. I like your comp choice a lot.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on May 17, 2011 at 4:48 PM

nice warm tones and low perspective here...glad you didn't get bitten!

DOF works well too

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on May 18, 2011 at 9:00 AM

Hi Richard,

The thing that strikes me most about this shot is the eye - very cool! I also quite like the overall colour palette and how the snake is wedged into the rocks. In a perfect world I'd prefer to see a little more DOF here (especially on the portion of the snake closest to you) but totally appreciate the impracticality of stopping down beyond f16 in this situation.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on May 20, 2011 at 1:46 PM

An interesting close up which to me always seems to make the rattlesnake look prehistoric. I was wondering what type of rattlesnake this is, we are starting to see the western diamondbacks come out in the desert behind our place. Nice job in getting this shot.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Robbie Knight on May 20, 2011 at 5:44 PM

Photo is great thanks for sharing. When snakes come out from their winter hibernacula they often spend several days (or more) bringing their body temperatures up and as you noted they are very inactive during this period of time. I live and work on the northern Utah west desert and I know several locations where snakes come out from their winter hide and all sit and warm at once…. I will dig up a picture and share with the group. Again, great EV, detail in the eye, and the scales look very sharp on my monitor…. I love the red/warm tones.....

Registered on April 10, 2010, 30 Posts, 135 Comments