Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can someone give me some advise on taking better pics of my snakes or recommend a cammra? what do you guys & girls think of these pics?

Pretty clear shots.

I like using artificial lighting to try to bring out true colors with brightly colored animals (like albinos, hypos, etc.), and outdoor lighting for darker animals to bring out their colors (like Indigos, Black Pines, etc.)...but you can experiment with whatever works best for you.
I think that outdoor lighting can wash out brightly colored animals, and indoor/artificial lighting simply cannot show dark colors/iridensence as well as sunlight.

As far as a camera, I recommend either the Nikon D80, or if you want something a little cheaper that will give you the same quality pictures...a Canon EOS Rebel XTi, which is the camera I just recently bought (because like many of us...I am short on cash).
For either one, get some kind of macro lens or a telephoto with a macro mode (also what I did)...and you should be able to get some great shots in a very short time.

Also, if you the snake will hold still long enough, try getting pictures of it out of your hands.

Good luck, and keep posting pics!

~Alex

thanks for the info on the camras and I been doing more research and it looks like the key is the macro lenns with the cammra thanks again

Very nice pics. They look good to me.

reako45

I'd say if you had a scantily clad woman holding your animal, it would make your pictures better..just my opinion though..nice looking snake BTW.
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Richard Evans

no not THAT one

I would have to agree with Rich you don't need a better cam just get a half naked lady to hold the snake and it will perfect
Take Care
Chris Flowers

Link

OK then...I guess you can just ignore my paragraph about cameras and lighting...
and just get a sexy women to hold the snake instead.

sounds good to me.LOL...

For the Pepsi I spewed and the papertowels needed to clean up the laptop..LMAO..perfect comeback
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Richard Evans

no not THAT one

HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha sorry but come'on sexy ladies and snakes aahhhhhh what more could ya ask for?

lol...hmmm...i have an ansewer,,but not what you would think,,,,

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Ball Python
Jungle Carpet Python
Eastern King
Mexican Black King
Sonoran Gopher
Aberrent Cal King
Anduran Milk
Hypo Brooks
Amel Motley Corn
White Sided Bull
Striped Pacific Gopher

I love the smell of aspen shavings in the morning...lol

"To serve man..it's...it's a cookbook!"

I think the snake should be on the ground and your chin in the grass and the camera on the highest resolution setting and in macro mode for the best shots, I'll post one...too many people don't use high res. and never shootdown on your snake or take pics in while their in cages...good luck JB

The shot of the indigo's head and neck is a great shot, much better than I take. While I like it as a photo, it really leaves me wanting to see the whole snake. I don't think shots taken from directly above a snake look good very often, generally seem more like documentation of how the snake looks. Overhead view I have here shows what the snake's back looks like but isn't really what I call a good photo. I like a midpoint between the eye to eye ground view of the snake and the overhead which I think I did a pretty good job of showing here. Enough over the snake so that you can see dorsal pattern and most of the body, close enough and low enough that there is nice detail and an intimacy, an eye to eye feel, with the snake.
Of course that's personal opinion, but I hope when you're posting pics of these great snakes we get to see a good glimpse of its body sometimes, not just really tight macro shots all the time.
Sorry I didn't have any Pituophis pics to use as examples, but I hope you see what I mean.

here is one that I took striaght down to show pattern but dose nothing for the detail of the face and eye of the snake which is where the photos real integrity is.

that is a good idea now I just need to find a woman to hold my (snake)