April 2009 Photo of the Month
Rattlesnake, Hoffman Ranch, Ben Bolt, TX © Jay Goodrich
I am currently in South Texas competing in the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photo Contest and last night I was rewarded with an image that I feel everyone should see, and consequently I have made it the photo of the month. Most of the images that I have seen of rattlesnakes have depicted them in ways that I do not necessarily agree with. Rattlesnakes are dangerous, but they are an amazing part of nature and I feel that they should be represented no different than that beautiful sunset over the beaches of Hawaii. This image is my first rattlesnake image and I definitely got lucky with the composition. As I saw it moving across the road, I discovered this pattern that was developing in its movement. As it traveled over a section of road that was dry and cracked from the drought that is going on here, I quickly composed and took the shot. I love the results. I took this image with a Canon 1D Mark III camera, Canon 100mm f 2.8 macro lens.
Related posts:
- February 2009 Photo of the Month
- March 2009 Photo of the Month
- June 2008 Photo of the Month
- May 2007 Photo of the Month
- July 2007 Photo of the Month
This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm. It is filed under photo of the month and tagged with jay goodrich writer + photographer, photo of the month April 2009, reptiles, snakes, venomous, wildlife.
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Jay is an internationally published and celebrated photographer and writer. His work focuses on architecture, nature, and adventure. His clients have included fortune five hundred companies, trade publications, national and international magazines and books, graphic designers, architects, builders, commercial printers, and many others.
Hi Dick,
I am glad that you registered! And thank you for the comment. I actually shot the image from the bed of a pick up truck. We spotted the snake moving down this dried and cracked dirt road on the ranch and I jumped into the bed as my assistant drove to the side of the snake. As we approached, I noted his patterned movements and quickly composed and took the shot. I think that there were about 10 images total and this was the sharpest and best composition. The whole scenario lasted about 30 seconds and we then moved on to photograph something else. Wildlife photography is driven more by luck than anything else and in this image I was granted the privilege to capture a unique image that I personally haven’t seen before of a rattlesnake. And thank you for the compliments!
Jay
Hello Jay,
Thanks for the registration info and as you can see I figured it out.
I wanted to comment on your rattlesnake shot because I recently returned from Red Rock country in Arizona. I was on a short photo shoot and wanted so bad to run across a rattlesnake-hopefully not stepping on one but wanting to capture a fantastic image like the one you got. One question-You have a direct down shot of the rattler-how far or what were you standing on for this unusual angle? It looks like boot level to me!
I recently started a blog and will post some images from Arizona as soon as I can. If you like check out my blog at http://dickberryphotography.com and leave a comment if you like.
Thanks for the great shot and great work!
Dick Berry