Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In that crabgrass on the right
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame you in those weeds so high.

Beautiful pic.That is a stunning animal.

Steve

That was a picture I took last year that I didn't like much. But once I cropped it to focus on the head it got a little more interesting. He is a handsome devil. In fact the photo doesn't do him justice.

Thanks for the kind remarks
John

The poem is William Blake, but the snake is still beautiful

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies 5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 10
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp 15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee? 20

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Carl Kauffeld; Snakes: The Keeper and the Kept; Doubleday & Co.,Inc.;1969. Chapter VII Trail of the Tiger.

Omar's quote at the end is much harder to parody than Blake's at the beginning, but Khayyam's quote is more relevant to my work with mandarins thus my qualifier "sort of".

Kauffeld has always been a herpetological touchstone for me. A relative of mine knew Kauffeld and his books were a big help to me when I started keeping reptiles back in the early 1970's. So I like to return to his writing to make my own reptile dealings more interesting (to me).

Regards
John

simply beautiful head shot, thanks for sharing.
-----
Frank Roberts
R&R Herpetological Frank Roberts & John Rodriguez

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Roberts'Realm of Reptile Research

>>simply beautiful head shot, thanks for sharing.
>>-----
>>Frank Roberts
>>R&R Herpetological Frank Roberts & John Rodriguez
>>
>>------------------------------------
>>Roberts'Realm of Reptile Research

NM.

A photographer friend of mine gave me a list of six things that were technically wrong with it.
Best regards
John

John,

How many megapixels does your camera have? I will try to get a decent picture of my male this summer (at the moment it's quite rainy here and the temperature is also too low) with our 4.1 megapixel camera...

Bert

Bert:
My old camera is only 3.2 mega pixel. It's got a 3X optical zoom. It's definitely nothing special as cameras go today.

It would be great to see a photo of your mandarin. I look forward to it.

Best regards
John