Something I've been meaning to do

I've been wanting to play a musical instrument for decades, and some years ago I bought a number of guitars, thinking I'd find time to learn. Well that never happened and I ended up giving them away to a friend, and selling the more valuable ones.

Fast forward to today, and my life has changed (for the better!) so with more free time, I picked up a bass guitar and signed up for lessons. This is an Ibanez SR500 in solid mahogany good with active pickups. The sound is stunning, deep rumbling to light tones, and I hope I can do it justice.

Firmly attached to the Ibanez is Ollie, a snow corn snake who was a rescue. It's quite difficult to get snakes to pose properly for the shot and I ended up with a dozen or so outtakes.

Gear used: Nikon D2x, Tamron 17-35mm lens, Manfrotto tripod and studio lights set at 45 degrees from each other.

I'm still here!

Sorry for the lack of updates, the new house, spring, yard work, etc have kept me away. But I am still alive and kicking. 

Here is my new friend, Argo.

Argo is a Roughneck Monitor (Varanus rudicollis) a wonderful species of Monitor lizards. He's shy, yet friendly, and highly intelligent (for a lizard anyway) and doesn't get too big. Currently he's about 1 foot snout to vent, and another foot for tail, and will reach (with tail) perhaps 5-6 feet.

Once the house is settled, and all the moving and unpacking (and sorting and and and...) is done, I'll get back to my vacation. Sufficed to say Belize was a blast and I look forward to going back again.

Cheers!

Day 2: Continued

 Continuing up the river, we started to see these snake-like plants all over the trees. Accurately enough, they are called Snake Cactus, and apparently fool the tourists. I was not fooled however! (riiiiight) 

Docking and having lunch, we were greeted by the little lizard fellow below. Known as a Jesus Lizard for its ability to run on water for short periods of time, they are more accurately called a Basilisk, and it's rare to see one with an intact snout. He was kind enough to pose for a picture before running off.

Another Rant

This journal is about photography. It's not about my political viewpoint, my societal viewpoint, world views or anything of that nature. I'm a photographer. I'm not a politician, or an actor, or an economist, or anyone that affects the way the world works. The way I see it, you come here for my pictures, not for my rants, and certainly not for my jokes (nudge nudge wink wink know say no more!)

So I keep these things down to a dull roar, only ranting about things photography related (or the rare soup one.)

Unfortunately I feel the need to rant once more. So to my dear readers, if you don't want to read a long-winded tirade, feel free to go back to looking at my pictures. I certainly won't mind, as I don't care to read rants either. For those that are still with me, here it goes:

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I worked at pet stores, working with reptiles and salt water systems. Back then, the only reptiles you could get, for acceptable amounts of money, were wild caught. Having been wild caught, they came with parasites and varying health, typically poor. They were stressed, starved, dehydrated and generally pissed off. Feeding was an issue because white mice, the most common food item available at a pet store, is not something found in the wild, so a vast majority of snakes simply refused to recognize them as food. 

I got to be very good at my job, rehabilitating, rescuing, reviving and feeding, these sad cases. I am ever so thankful that those dark days are behind us, and the reptiles available these days are captive bred and lack all those issues I dealt with decades ago.

Which is not to say they've been completely eradicated.

Enter "Lucky"

Lucky is an 11 year old Royal (nee Ball) Python. Lucky is half-starved, dehydrated, freaked out and very ill.

He was given to me by a guy who could no longer care for the snake.

The tank was too small, there were no hiding places, no water, no heat and it had never been cleaned. That the snake is still alive is a testimony to the resilience of Royal Pythons.

I am not certain he will live. I bleached the tank, put fresh paper down, got Pedialyte for him to drink, a hide box, full spectrum/heat light and some food. Lucky was too weak to constrict his prey, so fortunately the prey item didn't put up a struggle. Royal Pythons are supposed to be stocky bodied and round. Lucky is triangle-shaped. I can count his ribs and see his backbone.

This kind of neglect pisses me the hell off. The information out there on reptile care is legion. Royal Pythons are generally a forgiving bunch to begin with. Cases like this should have been consigned to the dust bin of history, and yet it's clearly still present in the reptile community.

Lucky is currently hiding, as Royal Pythons are wont to do, so no pictures of him, but when he de-stresses enough to come out, I will post a picture of him. 

Owning an animal as a pet is a responsibility. Their entire health and well being are in our hands. If we are unable, or unwilling to shoulder that responsibility, then we should not have a pet. Anyway, this concludes the rant, and I hope only to post positive comments on Lucky's health from now on.

Caption Contest

So I have a new snake, a Solomons Island Tree Boa, whom I have named Linus (on account of the fact she had a death grip on the wood branch when I bought her, and she wouldn't let go.)

Well Linus has been picky about food, so I bought an Anole for her to eat. At first, the Anole was scared and wouldn't go near Linus, and vice versa (dumb snake.)

One morning after switching on the lights, I was greeted with this. Brilliant, my snake isn't eatting the food I bought for her.
But the pose was too cute to pass up, and on a reptile forum (vaherps.com) I asked for a caption to go with this. Here is the winning caption, as posted by forum member Shanna.
"Anole: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when my fear is gone I will turn and face fear's path, and only I will remain."

Just In Time For Halloween

Something a little more my speed. A not-so-local reptile show was happening this weekend, and they are always good excuses for photography.

This, case in point, is known as a Halloween Crab. Or to be more accurate, a Gecarcinus quadratus. Found mostly in the Amazon area, it is largely vegetarian. They seem to be popular at the shows, probably because of their colours. It was kind enough to pose for me here.

My Best Side

Tried again with the Green Tree Python. A little more co-operative here, but only a little.

Cute guy, wish he stayed that colour.

Nikon D2x, 50mm Sigma Macro, SB-600 Flashgun

Lunchtime!

This is a baby Green Tree Python.

Yes, I know he's Yellow.

Trust me, he's a Green Tree Python. When he grows up he'll change colour. Just like the Emerald Tree Boas.

Beautiful to look it, not overly friendly.

Taken with my new Nikon D2x and 50mm Macro.

I'm Ready For My Closeup

Another ofthe cute geckos. Perched on his dish, ready to leap (and leap he did)

Very soft to the touch, like warm velvet.

Closer Please

So I can bite your face off! And he would too. It's an Amazon Tree Boa, in their typical colouration. Massive cute little guys with really long fangs and really nasty attitudes. His colour is slightly off as he was in a plastic tank and I wasn't going to ask the owners to take him out.

Macro lens, off camera flash, and some patience on his part.

Smile!

From a local reptile show that took place this morning. This is a crested gecko, a little lizard from near Australia. Temperate, and colourful, they are quite docile, but good jumpers. He (or possibly she, I've no idea) was kind enough to sit and pose for me.

The depth of field was too shallow, as I was using my Macro lens, but so it goes.

Deitiphobia

Fear of God. Most people would exclaim "Oh God!" if faced with a Pit Viper this close up. Me, I just think "Cool, where's my camera?"

Again, a little softer than I would have liked because of the glass, but I doubt the Zoo would let me get inside the tank for a better shot.

Dentist's Nightmare

This friendly little fellow was an absolute nightmare (heh, pardon the pun) to shoot. For starters, the (armoured I'm sure) glass was absolutely filthy, mainly from the inside where the water was touching, and he was, ah, shall we say, in flagrante delicto, with the female in the area, so I can understand why he wasn't really in the mood (heh, another pun, sorry) to pose for my camera.

But then, wonder of wonders, he swam up to the glass (still attached BTW) and smiled for me, or perhaps he was just bragging, hard to say. In any case, here is the best shot of him.

Pleasant dreams :)

More Therapy?

The thing I love about photographing reptiles, and snakes especially, is how nice they sit still for you.

In this case we have an excellent example of a Copperhead, just perfectly posed. The glass in between us softened the image just a tad, but given this little guy's ability to kill with one bite, I'll accept that tradeoff.

Glass

The DC Zoo has, in addition to the normal animals one might find there, an excellent reptile house. Unfortunately the critters are behind thick and sometimes smudged glass.

Which makes for difficult photography. Many of the shots from that house were marred by the glass getting in the way, but some turned out ok, like this large (female) Iguana.

Smile!

Probably the easiest shot I took at the Aquarium. Emerald Tree Boa. Beautiful plumage, but of course, the plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead. Well, no he's not, he's resting.

Smile!

This is an eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) that I took for a project for my son. This image was taken with what is widely regarded as the worst modern autofocus lens ever made, the Tamron 70-300mm 'macro'.

This is my only autofocus macro lens, it's not true macro per se, but given the venomous nature of my subject, I didn't want to break out my manual focus macro lens and get real close. In fact I shot this image from about 4 feet away, whereas the manual macro I'd be about 4 inches away, well within striking range.

The Tamron lens was given to me free (I almost junked it) and is apparently the only one they ever made which didn't suffer from chromatic abberation or horrendous softness. Hey, a pretty sharp image for a free lens.

Anyway, this eyelash viper is a baby, only about 6" (at most) in length and was kind enough to suffer through flash photography without moving so much as a muscle. Special thanks go to the owners for graciously allowing me to photograph him (or her, I didn't ask)

Gecko

Had an occasion to to do a photoshoot with some Crested Geckos. I liked this shot the most, as the gecko appears to be smiling. I like photographing reptiles as they will happily sit still while I get my camera in order. As in the case here.