Thanks for the info! I have to admit I just highly prefer sun lit photo's over photo's taken in the shadows or when clouded. For me the problem with a light snake on a dark background in the sun is, that the camera either sets exposure time for dark or light colors, which usually leads to over exposed snakes with litte color. That is why I manually decrease exposure time with one or two steps. This way I finally captured the true colors of my opal:
And my coral snow:
It's a pity these photo's loose sharpness though with every step decreasing exposure time...
Further sometimes finding similar colors for the background brings out the difficult to capture hues, like the steel, almost blueish grey of this corn: