On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 12:04 AM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 7/2/2016 7:54 AM, DZDub wrote:
>
>> http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20332
>>
>> I faced down this little garter snake in my back yard while working with
>> the E-620 and DZ 50/2.
>>
>
> Nice series!
>
> I got in front of him and as he turned to get away,
>> I continued to move in front of him. It must have been quite a sight, but
>> it got him winded and he had to stop and breathe, much sooner in the
>> process than you might think.
>>
>
> Aha, another useful technique to remember. Snakes are troublesome to
> photograph for me (and probably hard to shoot, too), the way they wave
> about.
>
Probably only useful with a fairly small snake on a carpet of lush grass.
On a trail, among rocks -- fogettaboudit.
>
> Fearsome beastie, he raised up and did that
>> cobra thing once -- maw open and everything -- but I couldn't get him to
>> do
>> it for the camera!
>>
>
> Years ago, I was walking for reasons of getting out, away from a bunch of
> stuff that was making me feel hemmed in. Out on a headland, no one around,
> sounds and sights of the sea, wind blowing the grass. Just what I needed. I
> intentionally didn't bring a camera - soooo.
>
> On the trail, I encountered a snake I'd not seen before. It was quite
> aggressive, forming a figure eight right in the center of the trail ahead
> of me, tail back, head forward, which looked like a great way to be able to
> strike at almost full body length. It did not, however, have the head shape
> of all poisonous snakes hereabouts, so I wasn't in danger.
>
> It had a darkish, blah colored body, with faint stripes - and a bright red
> head. Later research showed I had missed an opportunity to "shoot" the
> endangered San Fransisco Garter Snake. Most on line pix show a much more
> colorful body. Perhaps mine was one of the darker type, and dusty.
>
The garter snake is the most common snake in my experience. They scare the
bejeebies out of my wife, who is from Hawaii, but I pick them up and look
them over and discuss the ironies of evolution with them, etc. We also
have brown snakes, but I don't see them very often. I came across some
juveniles once and they were hilarious, practicing their ferocity without
limit, raising themselves up and striking like a cobra with their fangless
maws. It really wears them out though. A cold-blooded varmint has little
stamina.
We have timber rattlesnakes but I have not seen one in Iowa, so they are
tantamount to mythic creatures as far as I'm concerned. I saw one in
Kentucky once. Fear of snakes is possibly a vestige of our very early
hominid experience when we were much smaller and they perhaps much bigger.
Joel W.
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