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Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
I was going through cleaning up a hard drive yesterday and found a whole folder of images that I hadn't really looked at (YEAH!!!). I was driving across a private property in southeast Georgia and saw this large eastern diamondback rattlesnake crossing the road and asking to have his picture taken. So of course I had to oblige...
I was able to photograph the rattler for about 45 minutes. He was a very cooperative model during the whole photoshoot. I don't recall him ever rattling his rattles (which isn't uncommon), and he never offered to strike. He would only enter his defensive coil (seen here) when I would take my snake hook and keep him from crawling off into the adjacent briar thicket.
I like the fact that the rattles and eyes are in the same relative plane of focus, and that I caught a tounge flick at full extension. I'm not sure about the white sand reflecting the blue evening sky at the top of the frame, but I didn't crop it out.
Thoughts and suggestions welcomed, and thank you for looking.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 70-300 @ 240mm, f/10, 1/500th second, ISO 400, handheld (but with me laying down prone & bracing as well as I could), full frame.