Smooth snake

Discussion

9 replies

Posted by David Sewell on October 3, 2012 at 2:36 PM

I have not had a good year for snakes, but last weekend my wife and I went to a site in Surrey and found two smooth snakes and a grass snake, not to mention lots of slow-worms and common lizards. None of the snakes seemed very keen to be photographed, so here is a smooth snake from three years ago that I have re-processed from RAW.

In particular I have cropped it slightly differently, and selectively toned down the bright orange raw wood.

Thanks for looking.

David

Nikon D200, 150mm Sigma, 250 ISO, 1/160th @f8

Posted by Phillip Tomkinson on October 3, 2012 at 6:52 PM

Hi David a nice looking image I have not seen any this year yet I did get some slow-worms this year but not as many as last year.

Phil.

Posted by Graham Goddard on October 4, 2012 at 3:15 AM

A subject I've never worked on before - I think the shallow DOF works well here.

Posted by Andy Astbury on October 4, 2012 at 4:39 AM

Never clapped eyes on one in my life I'm embarrassed to say David

I like the snakes pose (I hate using that word) and it and this twig work well.

I'd be tempted to desaturate the reds/yellows a bit in the background so the area matches the hue and tonality of the snake/foreground.

But then again, I'd just be happy to see one!

Posted by Bob Johnson on October 4, 2012 at 12:11 PM

Yep an unusual one David and Ive never seen one either

Bob

Posted by Robert Lawrence on October 5, 2012 at 11:34 AM

I'm not so fond of the twig David but a beautiful looking snake.

Posted by Paul Whippey on October 5, 2012 at 7:27 PM

Very nice, the shallow DoF works very nicely. No nits here!

Posted by John Robinson on October 5, 2012 at 8:39 PM

Missed this earlier.
Many years since I saw them at Studland.
Nice one. David

JR

Posted by David Sewell on October 7, 2012 at 12:50 PM

Thanks for the comments, folks. I regard this as the hardest of our three snake species to work with. Adders and grass snakes will often sit still and pose for you, but once a smooth snake starts to move, that is it. I found this one during one of my regular Dorset surveys, and knew full well that if I tried to get rid of the twig the snake would be off like a shot. That did indeed prove to be the case, but fortunately I had got my pictures first.

I had better add that the shot was taken under Natural England licence as part of a monitoring programme I was involved with at the time.

David

Posted by Nick Mckeown on October 7, 2012 at 4:05 PM

Cracking image of a Smooth Snake David, although I am not too keen on the twig but as you say you take what you can get.

Nick.