Hello,
my name is Paul Gobert and I'm a nature photographer living in a Paradise called The Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, Australia.
My location is surrounded by highland Tropical Rainforest with its myriad of unusual natural subjects.
To the west lies the dry outback just a couple of hours drive away, whilst 800 meters below and just over an hours drive away to the east lies Cairns from where I can access to the coastal strip and the Great Barrier Reef.
One of my favorite spots to photograph water birds is Hastie Swamp National Park just out of Atherton. Its a world renowned birding spot with a magnificient double story viewing "hide".
Great spot to photograph the larger birds and meet up with some very interesting folk into birding and bird photography.
Have been frustrated in my efforts to get reasonable photos of the smaller birds there.
The other weekend I dug out an old canvas hide I had sewn up about 25 years ago.
I set the hide up back from the water's edge. The birds were unconcerned by its presence. Stilts, Spoonbills, Egrets, Dotterels , Sandpipers Grebes and Doves wandered past my lens with flocks of Magpie Geese and Whistle Ducks were in the background. After spending a few hours in the hide for some reason I glanced to the right of the hide and saw a beautiful brown snake. About one and a half meters long with fresh glistening skin and contrasting black eyes. The pose was great too and I wanted to take that photo. Trouble was the snake was about 10 cm from my right foot and separated from me by a flimsy piece of old canvas which was dangling above the ground. Decided to make a slow retreat instead and now making up another hide with an inbuilt snake-proof floor.
Cheers
Paul Gobert.
Juvenile Black-winged Stilt, Pentax K10D , Sigma 70-300 AF macro , Exposure data not currently visible. Attachment 157111
Warm welcome to BPN, Paul. I think you'll have a lot of fun on this site and learn a lot. We have several members from Down Under whom I'm sure you'll "run into" while in the forums.
The question is did you get a pic of the snake?
Looking forward to seeing some of your images in the Eager to Learn or Avian forum very soon!
Hi Paul, sounds like you live in birding / bird photography paradise indeed! I enjoyed reading your story, now I hope to see some images soon too (including snakes!).
Thanks for the welcome Marina and Daniel.
Marina, no I decided any movement to get the snake in frame would have been asking for trouble. Didn't have time for a full introduction to the snake but it definitely looked like an Eastern Brown.
As they are regarded as the second most venomous snake in the world I didn't want to tangle with it. Had I not seen the snake it might have entered the hide. Not much dancing room inside a hide. I backed out slowly and the snake moved into nearby vegetation.
Packing up the camera gear and hide involved a lot of very heavy foot falls. Have considered using vibrating snake deterrents around the hide but the soil is very swampy and probably would absorb the vibrations.
Found a discarded tent with floor at "Mitre 11" (take off of hardware store Mitre 10, rubbish dump) so cutting that down to make snake-proof hide.
Daniel, not many snake photos in my collection but might have some slides I can scan.
Although I have been photographing for many years I still have lots to learn. Digital photography is quite new to me especially digital manipulation.
Being retired I'm on a tight budget and use a lot of older gear (manual focus pre-set lenses sometime would you believe? ) and accessories I either adapt or build.
There are some impressive images being posted on this site, hope I can produce some that fit in.
Cool storey about the great bird photography sites nearby, the hide, and the snake. Sounds like lots of fun :). I have been on BPN a very short while, and have learned tons. Both from the inspiring photos and their comments, and the kind sharing and objective critiques of my own photos. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do, Paul! Looking forward to your photos!
Looking Forward to getting to know everyone.
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