First let me say "thank you" to all who've had kind things to say about the pics 
I've had a lot of fun playing with my camera lately since having a little time off work after going to the hospital and being on the verge of a stroke...my blood pressure was at 180/130!!! I'll be going back to work this week, so the pics will be on weekends only 
I am by no means an expert, I've just kind of stumbled across a few things that I've found to really help my camera take better pics. What I've found to work best (for my camera at least) is this...
Choose a shaded area outside, either early morning or early evening when the light is not bright. I like to use a heavily grown area of shrubbery or foliage to give a nice dark background. Place the photo-prop about 2-4 feet in front of the shrubbery, this seems to make the snake really jump out and the camera focuses really well on that one area in the forefront. If you're like me and use the camera on "auto" settings, this will really help the camera make all those auto adjustments particularly for the snake and it's colors.
I use no flash and use Macro mode for all my pics. My camera is extremely limited in what it can do, but it does take nice outdoor shots. It literally drives me crazy trying to get good indoor pics
