Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks. I've spent along time out photographing herps in the wild. A couple of tricks I will share with you. I carry along several sizes of containers with holes cut in the sides ranging from sour cream tubs, butter containers, and plastic flower pots from nurseries. I would cut them down in height. When you find a snake pick an appropriate background, mount your camera on a tripod, set your f stop, focus as best as you can, place the container in the field of view. Let the snake crawl into the container. Give it a little time to settle down. Remove the container and shoot away. If you do this you will get some fabulous shots.

Adam

Thanks for the tips, Adam....we all know I need as much help as I can get LOL!!!
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--Brian Scott

That is a great tip however I am generally too lazy to carry around a bunch of "hide boxes" so we end up stuffing snakes under our hands, hats, packs, etc.

We could have used a little butter tub while trying to snap some shots of an eastern coral snake in Florida last month. A bit bigger and nastier than our Arizona species!

Sounds wise. I usually try to hold them while my wife takes a pic. This works well with most harmless snakes. Works especially well with racers, waters and garters as they typically latch on to an appendage and stop moving. Sometimes though, thereafter, I start moving which can blur the pics.

Here is an image of the beforementioned culprit. We nick named him bitie".....LOL

Not a Pituophis but a pretty snake just the same

I've photographed numerous smallish rattlesnakes by putting my baseball hat over them briefly. They waste little time coiling up... remove hat with care to avoid a strike and they sit there posed, wondering where "the roof" went! TJ

I have literally hundreds of examples of photos taken like this, however they are all on slides and have no way of posting them.

Adam