Slithering Subjects

Okay, all. Be kind and spill your secrets. How in the world do you get your snakes to stay still for a photo op? I swear, my girls are camera-phobes. I'm always photographing their behinds as they are slithering away from me. When I got my new camera, I had idyllic visions of the snakes flicking their tongues a few cm from the camera lens as my super-macro setting took stunning photos of snake faces. All I get are photos of snake butts.

Well I usually hold the snakeletts with one hand and take rapid fire pics with the other, I usually end up taking 80 or so of each snake and out of those there are only about 5 that I like that are in focus or have interesting visual elements, that's why digital cameras are so nice, keep the good delete the bad.

Thanks. Yay for digital cameras!

Nothing wrong with a nice piece of tail!

Yeah, but they're all blurry!

I usually make a jungle gym for them. With trees and baskets. Different things that a snake would like to investigate. Then just be snapping away. Some people use a blue bowl. I have used a blue sheet it does calm them down and they don't move. I don't know why but they usually don't move. With the hatchlings sometimes I will put my hand over them and once I have the camera ready take my hand off and snap away. You will take bunch of pictures and only a few will be perfect but there are some of my secrets.

Hrm, I swear I have a picture somewhere...

Don't have time to dig it out right now though. Place a heavy bowl over your snake, let it sit for awhile (like maybe 5 min so bring a book maybe), uncover, and snap while they're still in that shocked "how DARE you uncover me!" phase.

Jessicat, I am going to try that! Thanks!

To get them to do this put them in a blanket or sock cover and hope you get lucky.

I agree with the others, cover them with a bowl or even a deli cup. Let them settle for just a minute works for me. have the camera ready in hand, and with the other hand remove the cup or bowl. Take as many pics as you can in that moment of confusion, then pick out the best pics of the group. You can repeat this process several times, it always seems to work. Another good technique is to use a picture program and crop your pictures so they look nice and centered. You can also use the crop feature to zoom in even more than the Macro lens gives you. For instance you can crop a picture of just the snakes head. Here's an example of cropping. It was taken on an orange tree so I did not use the cover technique, I just kept taking pics and repositioning the snake. I deleted tons of pics and kept only the ones I like.





Another technique that works well if the snake is a baby or neonite is to simply place it in a deli cup clear or white, and take pics of him in there. If he squirms too much cover the cup till he sttles down then remove the cover as before and shoot away!







Still another technique is to restrain the snake in one hand and take plenty pics. I use my fingers to pose the snake so as to show off certain features, like the belly for instance.

Thanks, Jorge. I really appreciate your response! I love your avatar. Do you guys ever notice that digital photos often are not quite SHARP? It seems there's always a little fuzziness.

Karoni said:

Thanks, Jorge. I really appreciate your response! I love your avatar. Do you guys ever notice that digital photos often are not quite SHARP? It seems there's always a little fuzziness.

Click to expand...

You know you may be right? Or maybe it's just that you really need to know what your doing with the regular cameras, like a 35 mm. When I crop a photo is when I notice if it is a little fuzzy. That one of the snake in the orange tree is a tad bit fuzzy but I have taken some which I was able to zoom in a lot and still stayed crisp. I really suck with cameras that's why I love my digital one, it does all the work for me. I just hold the button and it focuses then I press it all the way down to take the shot. I would say which ever you end up getting, get to know it very well. I still have fits trying to take certain pictures when the flash seems to wash out the colors or certain colors don't look true. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm having too much fun taking all these pictures, lol.

What Morph is the last snake in the pic! Gorgeous!!

Normal, Okeetee phase.

This is my setup. Not sure why, but mine just seem to do well. The props aren't just for looks though. It gives them something to explore...

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113063

The trick of covering the snake seemed to work pretty well for me. Pictures still came out of focus, but that's just me and my digital camera I suppose.

However, for the uncovering trick, might I recommend not doing it more than say, 3 times a session? By the third time around, my little hatchling wised up. When I removed the hide (just to take him back home, no camera in hand even), he sprang up and did the cobra face ("Ah hah! I am ready for you this time, evil camera stealing my image!"). He's since avoided his floor-less hides in favor of the tubes. Wonder how long before he trusts floor-less hides again?