Black Rat Snake

Gallery: WildlifePosted June 9, 201163 views3 comments

Another reptile, namely a common eastern US snake. Encountered last weekend next to a trail along the Potomac River, on a casual hike with only my telephoto lens in hand. Still, I hope the result is worth posting, for a species not found with the Wildlife Gallery search.

This snake was about five feet long, but not nearly as large in girth as a previous sighting a few years ago. It was aware of us, of course, but unconcerned despite our Westie being about ten feet away, on leash. I liked this closeup at eye level the best. I did not realize until later that my shutter speed was slow, 1/30 sec, so the flicking tongue is blurred. Still, that's the way we ordinarily observe it. What I would most like is to see a black rat snake taking a mouse and killing it by constriction. Maybe next time ...

Canon 7D, 300mm, f/5.6, ISO 500, slight crop.

Comments welcome, thanks, Dave Thomas, Leesburg, Virginia

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on June 10, 2011 at 2:40 AM

Nice to see a unique species, at least one that I'm not familiar with, thanks for sharing David :^)

Reading what you wrote about the length of this subject, I find myself wondering what other shots of it would be like seeing as much if not all of it's body as well. If this were mine, without wanting to push it too far, I think I'd experiment with sharpening a little to see whether I could bring out a bit more detail in it's skin.

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by David Thomas on June 10, 2011 at 2:42 PM

Thanks, Ashley. I had already darkened the light area on the underside, and slightly sharpened the whole image. Both helped, but I'm afraid the real limitation was in the hurried original photo. The photos of the entire body of the snake were good for the record, but not for posting..

Registered on June 21, 2010, 30 Posts, 178 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on June 10, 2011 at 2:44 PM

Hi David, you managed to get quite close to this snake for an interesting close-up. You did not emntion your SS, but IMO it was a bit too slow. that the tongue is blurred is not a big deal IMO, but also the eye region looks a bit soft to me, something that is quite critical in a portrait close-up like this. The exposure was well handled, although I might tone down that bright spot on the rock near you copyright notice. Thanks for sharing this first off in the this NPN gallery.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments