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cghalford

He who speaks with forked tongue

Jul, 2016

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Awards

Winner in Snakes, Snakes and more Snakes Photo Challenge

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Peer Award

Superb Composition

Virtuoso

Magnificent Capture

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Adams falls, Rocky Mountain National park

Golden clouds, rainbow and ocean: contemplating beauty

Curtains rock formation Blanchard Springs caverns

Six-legged grip allows fighter plane pose

Rainbow and white sand: Seagrove Florida

Behind The Lens

Location

I have absolutely hated snakes and been terrified of them my whole life. As I became more and more enamored with wildlife photography, I became more at ease with snakes if they were in plain sight. In my favorite natural park near my home, there is an abundance of all things wild. Near the Arkansas River, an inlet that snakes back inland (bad pun) is a slackwater swamp that has overflowed the concrete bike trail during heavy rains but is normally very shallow and choked with duckweed. Last summer as the water dried up, many large cottonmouth snakes began to be seen in the duckweed. Because the water level was three to four feet below the concrete level, and they were visible up to 50 feet away, I would stand for 30 minutes at a time waiting to get a good shot. This monster is actually about 3-4feet long.and was completely unafraid of me.

Time

The actual photo was taken about 9am, on a slightly overcast but brutally hot and muggy day in the Arkansas summertime. The earlier long range photos of deer and the like were useless due to the ever present haze and humidity around the water.

Lighting

All natural lighting. The slightly overcast sky prevented the inevitable shine off the water, and made for a decent contrast, and reasonably sharp focus

Equipment

All my photos are taken with a Nikon P510, which is a coolshot point and shoot with a number of great features especially the 42X optical zoom. The shot was handheld on a "close up" setting.

Inspiration

As I stated earlier, I have been deathly afraid of snakes my whole life, yet somehow, these demons in this environment became a fascination of mine. When I returned to my teaching job in the fall, many of my Facebook friends who are teachers began calling me the Snake Man, because of their own revulsion/fascination with snakes and my photos. My longtime mentor teacher, and biggest promoters of my photography told me "PLEASE NO MORE SNAKE PICTURES!!!" Yet that was all she talked about when she mentioned my hobby/obsession

Editing

Minimal post-processing, with only a hint of added color and sharpening. Like most of my closeups, this is cropped by about 30% of the original frame. Seems like the crop was about right as the eye and tongue are clear and in focus

In my camera bag

No special equipment at all, just a determined guy with a great point and shoot camera, After probably 30,000 snaps, I guess I am finally getting the hang of it.

Feedback

Like Real Estate, the first three words are location, location, location. Like any hunter, (which I am not one), to find snakes and other wildlife it is mostly dumb luck, choosing a likely location where wildlife has been known to be, and then persistence and readiness to pursue and capture it when the moment comes.I walk this park probably a hundred plus times a year. Many days are nearly not worth it, when an hour plus walk gets you a thousand swarming gnats and a few tick bites to see a bird lift off or a deer run off the moment you aim the lens at them. Yet like golf, a friend once said, (who was as terrible at golf as I was), "no matter how frustrated you are by your misses, when one good to magic moment comes together into that perfect photograph, it will inspire another 100 days in the fields and forests, looking for the next great shot"

See more amazing photos, follow cghalford

cghalford

cghalford

He who speaks with forked tongue

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow cghalford

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