Gotta love those neotropics!

Snakes exotic to South Africa with venoms that are considered to be medically important.

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Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby MegF » Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:25 am

I got a new DSLR camera for Christmas and my poor snakes think the paparrazi are after them with all the flash photography going on! Took some photos of the neotropic rattlesnake with it. She mostly stays in her hide but I've gotten some really good photos of her face.
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And an eating shot!
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4.4.2~Green tree pythons
4.2~Amazon tree boas
1.3~Sibon Nebulatus
1.0~Eyelash Viper
1.0~Copperhead
1.1~False Water Cobras
0.1~Cantil
0.1~Neotropic rattlesnake
http://www.franclycac.com
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby shadowfoot » Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:31 am

Awesome shots of awesome snake.
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second, is better than living a
dull-grey life for eternity - Jing (King Of Bandits)
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sushi without wasabi - Gintoki (Gintama)
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby croteseeker » Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:51 am

Beautiful.
" a squat, scaly worm with, 'don't touch,' on one end and, 'that's why,' on the other."

-Thomas Palmer
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby Bushviper » Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:18 pm

Just dont misjudge your distance when photographing this species. Make sure someone is watching from the side to warn you when you get too close. I have made that mistake before. Nice pictures too.
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby MegF » Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:26 pm

That's the wonderful thing about telefoto lens. I can shoot from across the room, or in some of these, right through the glass without putting myself even close to her. The feeding shot was taken through the glass on the door. As long as you manually focus so it doesn't focus on the glass you're good. With the zoom or telefoto, I use auto focus with the door open so I don't have to have my fingers at the end of the lens focusing.
4.4.2~Green tree pythons
4.2~Amazon tree boas
1.3~Sibon Nebulatus
1.0~Eyelash Viper
1.0~Copperhead
1.1~False Water Cobras
0.1~Cantil
0.1~Neotropic rattlesnake
http://www.franclycac.com
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MegF
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby Boadicea » Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:01 pm

Nice pics! I too love neotropical rattlers but I've been a bit nervous to take photos of mine after experiencing their strike range first hand. If I may ask, what subspecies of crotalus durissus is she? Could she be crotalus durissus cumanensis? She looks too light to be c. d. terrificus. In the pics I have seen of them they look quite dark. I have c.d. durissus and they don't look quite the same as your girl. She is very beautiful by the way.
"You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming. Life, for eternal us, is now; and now is much too busy being a little more than everything to seem anything, catastrophic included"- e e cummings
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby Sfourie » Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:16 pm

Nice pics, what lens were you using?

Good tip a bloke once gave me about flash photography is to try to bounce the flash of reflective surfaces, gives your images a little bit more depth if you do it correctly.
A Shangaan legend states that any man resting or sleeping in the shade of a baobab will become eccentric and forever be enslaved by Africa and its wilderness, guess it's too late for me.
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Re: Gotta love those neotropics!

Postby MegF » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:12 pm

Boadicea: These were listed as durissus durissus but now it's Simus. she is lighter than the others that I've seen, which is what attracted me to her in the first place. I had another female just like her prior to this one but I ended up trading that one for this one. The other girl was so psycho that I just couldn't keep her here safely. She needed smooth floors of at least 8-10 ft. (2.4-3 meters) of space in all directions to safely work with her. I avoid directly working with them if at all possible but if I have to, I want one that I can at least hook or use tongs with and you couldn't use either with that other girl. She was out to get you and WAAAAY over my comfort level. I kept her a total of 6 months and hated every minute of it! I was very glad to get this gal who is much more mellow and spends most of her time in the hide where I can lock her in if necessary.
Sfourie: I'm using two different lenses. With the door closed I was using my 18-55mm lens and for the telefoto I used the 75-300mm. I'm hoping to get a nice detactable flash at some point. If you get close (like the one with the closed door) the flash will get blocked by the cage more or less. I do like this flash much better than my old digital point and shoot. That one I had to diffuse with a piece of tissue or the glare from it would just make a white mess out of the photos. This one doesn't do that.
4.4.2~Green tree pythons
4.2~Amazon tree boas
1.3~Sibon Nebulatus
1.0~Eyelash Viper
1.0~Copperhead
1.1~False Water Cobras
0.1~Cantil
0.1~Neotropic rattlesnake
http://www.franclycac.com
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