Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This little fellow is showing why snakes of the genus Pituophis are such great hissers. You can see a small flap of tissue on the floor of his mouth in front of his glottis. Air is forced out of his windpipe over this piece of tissue making a very loud hiss.

Season's greetings,
WK

Nice work!
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks, Oldherper. Here's an addendum pic for the "tongues" thread below. The tongue is transluscent in this albino, clearly showing the lingual artery supplying oygenated blood.

I'm taking some photos for my eight year old's upcoming science project. I'm proud that he chose herps as his topic.

Cheers,
WK

If you don't mind my asking, what equipment was used for this photography?

I use a Canon 10D for my digital photography, and a Canon EOS3 for film work. For Macro, I use a Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro lens, I use Canon 550Ex and 420EX flashes in a Master/Slave configuration with an off-camera cord and sometimes slave studio strobes, various reflectrs and soft boxes, Bogen Manfrotto 3021n legs with a Bogen/Manfrotto 3047 head, Canon remote releases, Velbon Macro focusing rail....
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you again, Oldherper. These pics were taken with a Nikon D70, Sigma 105mm EX DG macro lens, SB 800 speedlight, f/16, 1/160s, flash on iTTL, handheld (this flash has a high sync speed, allowing you to get away with small aperture settings while not using a tripod). We have a set of shelves that are recessed into the wall, making a white box. I put this little guy in there and angled the flash to bounce off the white surface above and to the back of him. This produced more even lighting reducing the harsh shadows often seen with direct flash.

You have some very nice equipment. I nearly bought the 90mm Tamron – from what I’ve seen and heard it is the sharpest macro lens in the 90-105mm class. That’s saying a lot considering the Canon and Nikon offerings. How do you like it? I ended up going with the Sigma because it felt like it could take more of a beating than the Tamron (I’m often out in the woods with my camera). I am in the market for a tripod. Are you happy with the Bogen/Manfrotto? I’m considering one of these, or a Gitzo.

Cheers,
WK

>>Thank you again, Oldherper. These pics were taken with a Nikon D70, Sigma 105mm EX DG macro lens, SB 800 speedlight, f/16, 1/160s, flash on iTTL, handheld (this flash has a high sync speed, allowing you to get away with small aperture settings while not using a tripod). We have a set of shelves that are recessed into the wall, making a white box. I put this little guy in there and angled the flash to bounce off the white surface above and to the back of him. This produced more even lighting reducing the harsh shadows often seen with direct flash.
>>
>>You have some very nice equipment. I nearly bought the 90mm Tamron – from what I’ve seen and heard it is the sharpest macro lens in the 90-105mm class. That’s saying a lot considering the Canon and Nikon offerings. How do you like it? I ended up going with the Sigma because it felt like it could take more of a beating than the Tamron (I’m often out in the woods with my camera). I am in the market for a tripod. Are you happy with the Bogen/Manfrotto? I’m considering one of these, or a Gitzo.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>WK

Very nice equipment list...

As far as Tripods go, for the money you can't beat the Bogen/Manfrotto tripods. Gitzo is good, but their equivalent products seem quite a bit more expensive. I also use a much larger (and heavier) Bogen/Manfrotto for my Medium Format cameras. I've used my 3021/3047 combination with my Sigma 170-500 zoom (big, heavy lens) with excellent results. The head locks positively into position, but it is quick, easy and intuitive to change positions. I'm seriously considering a Wimberly gimbal head with Arca-Swiss quick release plates for the big long lenses for wildlife work in the field.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for the advice. You must be a pro-level photog with all of the equipment and knowledge you have. If you don’t mind, I was wondering if you had any additional advice about macro flash brackets such as recommendations on a good commercial one. I’m thinking about the Kirk and RRS brackets, as well as the Wimberly Shape Shifter. I’m also thinking about getting some aluminum strap and fabricating my own. Any info you (or anyone reading this) about macro flash brackets is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
WK

I don't use a macro flash bracket. I know the stuff from Wimberly is exceptional quality. I also don't use macro ring flashes. I don't really like the quality of light they provide. It is very neutral, even and flat, but too much so for my taste..it looks unnatural to me.

I prefer to set up flashes directionally and use reflectors for fill-flash. I use a trial-and-error method and just shoot test shots until I get all of the shadows and speculars to emulate natural sunlight as much as possible, and fill in the front without overpowering the image with front-light. I have a bunch of homemade reflectors that I made by taking pieces of aluminum foil and gold foil (available at hobby supply stores), wadding it into a ball and then unraveling it and glueing it to a piece of stiff cardboard. This gives it a wrinkle-effect surface which tends to diffuse and soften the light a little. I use the round commercial reflectors on the opposite side from the flash direction to sort of fill the shadows on that side a little without eliminating them entirely. I have found that I can control the flash more effectively by bouncing it into an umbrella or even a piece of white poster board.

I also use a white-box that I made from plywood. That is a key piece of equipment for staging shots of small snakes, etc.

Here are a couple of shots from this setup...

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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beautiful indigo and baby yellow tail; and very nicely exposed!

I don’t care for ring flash, either; and I see what you mean about directional flash - it really adds texture to the photo. My problem is that I enjoy taking macro shots of live animals out in the field, making it nearly impossible to use studio techniques to get interesting exposures. It’s even difficult to use a tripod because the photo subjects often sit still only briefly. This leaves me using flash to allow quick shutter speeds to compensate for hand shake. Getting the flash off camera helps quite a bit. If I can get the flash very close to the subject, it reduces harsh shadowing. I can also position the flash to one side or another to accentuate texture in what would otherwise be a flat scene. This tadpole picture taken earlier this morning is an example. My kids were stomping on iced-over puddles and discovered there were actually tadpoles under the ice. I put an old leaf in a glass jar, put a tadpole in there, and held the flash with my hand off to the right of the tadpole (with my left hand crossed under my right arm which was holding the camera!). This gives the scene more texture by producing shadows, but it is difficult to operate the camera while handholding the flash. A flash bracket would have been nice to have for this shot.

I think the kids may have damaged the tadpole’s tail while stomping the ice. I noticed what looks like blood in the picture. He was quite alright, though, and we put him back where we found him.

Cheers,
WK

Oh, OK...I do use an off camera flash bracket for things like what you are describing. It's just a Stroboframe bracket, but it works very well.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson