I think Peter May is on a first name basis with every snake in central Florida. He and Joe Cheatwood invited me to their research site to look for pigmy rattlers. I couldn't find any on my own. In fact, I had trouble locating them even after they found one and told me where to look! So I have acknowledge Peter, Joe and the rest of the research team for this image. Thankfully Peter has posted all his recent great snake images in the photocritique forum so I'm not too embarrassed to post this one here. N70, sigma 105, sensia 100

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), July 22, 1999

Answers

I really like the crispness of the head, and the lighting, and the colors. I think I'd prefer a little less out-of-focus foreground, but on the other hand it makes for a unique shot.

-- John Sullivan (sullivan@spies.com), July 23, 1999.

Thanks for the (too) kind words, Larry. While you can certainly quibble about the out of focus pine needle and the bright leaf behind this snake, it certainly beats the crap out of anything I was able to get in my first several years of photographing these guys. What you have done extremely well is capture this snake in a posture and from an angle that makes the head stand out from the body, and makes the eye very apparent, all the while retaining a feel for the entirety of the snake. None of these things are easy to do, in my experience. You can come back and try to do better any time you like, but this is a great 1st (or 5th, or 50th, or...) effort at photographing these deceptively difficult little beasts. (If you like, next time you're down I'll show you my album of abysmal pigmy pictures (post-culling), and that should make you feel like a god.)

Peter

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), July 23, 1999.

My impression about the image is (almost) the same as J. Sullivan's.

-- H.R. (henn@mhg.tartu.ee), July 23, 1999.