Omar

Very nice capture and composititon Sandy!
The curve in it's body is sweet, but I think you're crazy!!!
Very menacing look!

Lovely and scary all at the same time-terrific portrait

Dave

Great capture. Great colors and well composed. Really a great shot. love it.

Is he really friendly? I've never heard of someone keeping a cobra for a pet. Didn't even know you could remove poison sacs. Nice shot.

Cool and creepy. Great capture.

Beautiful photo Sandy! Perfect pose of the snake, great BG, nice light with well balanced use of flash. All in all very well executed.

this is excellent Sandy, under all points of view. A cobra for friend ... brrr.

Perfect pose, comp and great detail sandy! Very good image

Sandy, you did such a great job of capturing "Omar", he looks like he is going to jump right out of the photo. Amazing detail.

Laura Stafford

Superb execution....

I can only hope to get images this sharp some day. I was curious why you didn't increase the ISO to get a faster shutter speed. At 1/60 I would expect a little motion blur, but there are no signs of it here. You obviously know what you're doing. Absolutely wonderful!

Sandy, this is really an excellent photo. A friend of mine just purchased an albino snake and I'm thinking I might need to 'borrow it' for a photo op.

To answer Jeff's question about the the slow SS, a flash was used so it "froze" the action which results in a sharp image (if done properly)

- Luke

Very cool and very sharp captive shot....but I'm curious- are you sure about the length? 21 feet would be a world record for a Cobra....the biggest previously being a King Cobra measured at 18 feet in length. Even for a Python this would be an immense size, for a Cobra this is unimaginable!

Good!!!!!!!
István

Beautifully photographed!

I very much like the pose and the light. Almost looks like it was taken in a studio. What did you use for a BG? I am also curious about the fangs. Are they folded down or retracted or whatever you call it or were they removed when the poison sacs were removed.

Stunning!! Excellent detail, so sharp. Do you have any full frontal shots showing the hood?

Brandon, I see a couple websites that say 18 feet is the record for a king cobra, and a few others that say 24 feet is the record. http://www.cobras.org/cob_1.htm
Just passing on what the owner said about his length - I'm not about to try to stretch him out to measure him!!!
Robert, the BG is the wall of the room he lives in, cleaned up a lot to remove shadows from the flash and other stuff. .
Fangs - the fangs are folded until they are ready for use (thankfully he is calm and collected here) - you can see the fang ends folded in the upper mouth.
I did get other poses, but i liked this one with the bright eye, tongue, and fang tips.
Glad people like him - he really is a vey beautiful creature.
Sandy

Hi Sandy,

Wow, this is a great snake portrait. I love your use of the frame and the pose/expression of Omar is excellent. And, the lighting is spot-on as well! My only non-nit is being deprived of the pleasure of seeing this in a larger format. Very well done from start to finish - congratulations on this shot!

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...Omar would be proud!

Brad

Great capture. I've never seen anything like it

Very dramatic capture. I have to say that I am annoyed to hear that someone would remove venom sacs from a cobra or any other venomous reptile for purposes of keeping it as a pet. Venom is utilized by a snake for not only defensive purposes, but for digestion.