Springtime Rattler...

[Photobiologist]

I was going back through some files & found a folder that I hadn't worked up yet! All right! That afternoon, I found this eastern diamondback rattlesnake crossing a dirt road down in south Georgia. The light was getting low, so I didn't have much as much shutter speed/depth of field to work with as I would have liked. I'm not sure whether I have quite enough DOF here or not? What do you think?

Nikon D70, Nikkor 70-300 @ 270 mm, f/5.6, 1/500th second, ISO 400, handheld on with elbows propped on the roadbed, cropped to about 95% of image to straighten a bit.

[mark]

Ohhhh this is very nice, VERY VERY VERY VERY nice!

[rpk717]

Robert, great capture, looks a little close for comfort!

[barmstrong]

Outstanding! Super angle on this shot. Knowing this one was not behind glass makes it that much better.

[jckegley]

I agree with your conclusion....just a little bit more depth of field and it would be perfect. Still a great shot.

What makes the photo so cool is .....think about the two things you want to photograph about a rattle snake... the head/eyes and the rattle.... you got both in almost the same focal plane and right next to each other.

[Photobiologist]

Thanks y'all. I still haven't worked up but about 1/3 of the images in that folder. There was a yellow-throated warbler (a handful of shots), some baby gators (3 or 4 shots of the non-cooperative little boogers), and then over 100 shots of this snake that I took pictures of for about 45 minutes before letting him go on his way. So there could be one (and I'm sure there are) with more depth of field, but like jckegley observed, to have his head & rattle right there in basically the same plane is pretty cool...

I stayed just beyond his maximum striking distance. I don't remember him rattling (which really isn't that uncommon), though he was obviously upset that I was not letting him crawl on off on his merry way.

I did wish that I had someone else with me to help wrangle him and make sure I wasn't getting too close. Though I did have a snake stick and was wearing snake proof boots, when you are laying on the ground about 3 feet from him with your hands as the closest thing to him, and no-one within 5 miles (being 5 miles behind a locked gate), you do get a bit nervous...

[dawnita]

I agree on the depth of field. But I also like how you can see the clear diamond design in black. Personally, I don't know that I would have had the nerve to take this shot. Instead, I would have been driving down the road wishing I had had a longer range zoom lens to make the shot possible. This then would have led to the "making up my list of reasons why I NEED the new lens" to share with my husband when I got home.

Great shot.
Dawnita

[Photobiologist]

Turns out that just a bit later, I have a very similar shot (showing more snake cause a little shorter focal length) that I shot at f/10 that I like even better! Yeah!

[mrsisu]

You could get more depth of field with a wide angle lens! Yike I really love this shot. Doubt I would have lay there three feet from him :D

[wetbelly]

I'm going to go against the grain here and admit that I actually like the shallow DOF on this shot. The important stuff is sharp, and I think the shallow DOF makes the image more intimate and more similar to how our eye would see it. Absolutely wonderful you brave brave soul! :D