Photographing snakes

[Alex90]

Hi,

I was hoping people might be able to give me some tips on photographing adders and grass snakes.

I have no problem finding them, i have got a favourite spot i discovered a few months back... i've seen 3 grass snakes, 7 adders (including one melanistic one) and many slow worms in the past 3 days. I was just wondering what the best way of photographing them is.

Obviously where your shadow falls is a key point, avoid casting it over the snake .. but is there anything else you can do to avoid spooking the snake..

Also what sort of lens would you advise using (although this should probably go in the photography section) I have been using a 90mm f2.8 tamron macro lens, but have found it tends to focus in on the main point say the head and the rest of the snake is blurry. Whether this is my lack of experience or the wrong choice of lens... ?

Any advice much appreciated

Alex

[marvin]

hi

grass snakes are easily spooked and difficult to photograph in situ. a longer lens may help but you'll still miss many more than you catch. stepping very carefully and ensuring you are upwind will also help. sometimes you can catch one about to shed with milky eyes and they tend to be a bit less sensitive to their surroundings and ones that have recently fed may also be slower to disappear. they may also return to the spot they have been basking in after 10-20mins if you can hang around

adders are much more obliging especially in spring. the tamron 90mm should be a great lens for this subject. i have taken many decent shots of adders with a sigma 50mm macro and the extra reach should help you.

as for the shallow depth of field issue, you're going to have to set the aperture manually. the higher the number the smaller the aperture and the more dof you will get. you will have to balance this against a shutter speed that is fast enough to avoid blur if you are handholding and also image degradation at apertures over f22. also consider a monpod or other low support that allows you to get down to the snakes eye level.

some people also use flash to allow for smaller apertures and faster shutter speeds. this doesn't appear to bother reptiles at all but can make images look a bit flat. worth experimenting though.

look forward to seeing your pics.

tim