King Cobra

[Arpan Saha]

King Cobra
[Nikon D7000 + Sigma 150-500]
Location - Bhittarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Orissa
Shot Taken on - Sep, 13

[Arpan Saha]

1/50 sec; f/8; ISO 3200
taken in low light (around 5:15pm)

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Beautiful pose with the flicking of the tongue, Wish the light was better for the only other option you had here was to go down on the aperture (6.3 on the Sigma) and maybe a stronger support for stability.
Lovely eye contact. Thanks for sharing

Rajan

[Arpan Saha]

thanks for your review...
ya i should change aperture to 6.3 in case of low light from now on...
the support is really a problem...i always take images handheld, which seriously degrades my picture quality, any suggestions regarding support (i.e., while standing...i'm going to use bean bag for ground and vehicle shots..)? [tripod is too clumsy for me tracking small birds...]

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting. Good eye contact. Agree about the shutter speed. You can check the below thread for some hand holding techniques -

http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?268-Improving-sharpness-of-your-photographs

Thanks for sharing.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rare sighting. Its intelligent and glittering eyes spreading the message :'I am the King'. From the contrast I find that colours have come out natural. Have you got any wider composition? Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Arpan Saha]

thanks for your reviews... I read the review of Mr. Sabyasachi Patra - "He had asked me, “do you know what is the difference between you a me?” When I looked at him, he said that he doesn’t shoot without a tripod or monopod whereas I was happily shooting hand held. Since that day, I have always tried to use camera support systems like a tripod, monopod, shoulder pod or bean bag to steady my shots." Well said...

I should start practicing tripod...it will be like learning photography skills from the beginning...

Mr. Saktipada - ya i've wider view, but its not worth posting due to low light...

[Roopak Gangadharan]

nice to see this from Bhittarkanika

[Murugan Anantharaman]

What a beauty!!! King Cobra is my favorite snake. Any and every image of the king is pleasing to watch. You have been very lucky to see this gorgeous snake in the wild and also photograph it. When I had been to Agumbe a few years back I did see a king but could not take an image because of the sheer brilliance of the snake which got me captivated and spellbound. Thanks for sharing.

[Arpan Saha]

:001_smile:

[Debasis Bose]

Beautiful sighting, once upon a time cobras sighting was very common.
I was brought up in Kanpur, our house was situated next to a small village known as tewaripur, adjoining that was farmland and beyond the farmland was forest (between the south bank of ganges and the farmland). I recollect every year one or two person from that village used to die of cobra bite, it was common then childrens were picked up by hyena and leopards every year. There was a strict rule not to venture out after sunset beyond the setllements.
My school was about three km from our house and I used to walk down every morning and afternoon with my classmates through the colony to and from school. It was a missionary school and the principal was italian mother, school was situated on about 70 acres and after rainy season when the school used to reopen the field used to be wild with squirreltail, foxtail and hairy crab grass. On the edge of the boundry wall outsize grass used to grow because of very little disturbance and interference from us, in these grass once used to reside innumerous cobra, in fact that year the snake had bred that season. I still remember we were playing during the lunch time and suddenly one of my classmate shouted snake, we all were shell shocked to see the huge 14 to 15 feet long king cobra with the hood raised and slowly raising it further to match the height of the classmate, all of us ran from the spot and informed the teacher, sister and mother (principal) arrived at the spot, the cobra was still lurking there and then came the gardeners with sticks and killed that snake. Later it was found there were hundreds of baby cobras nearby, we were not told what happened after that, but presuming all of them were killed and the area was cleared. This happened either in late 70's or early 80's. Unaware or for survival, in last 30 years, we have destroyed our natural treasure.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see this King Cobra. Within the last two years we had one sighting was in Sundarbans and the last was in Kaziranga. The odisha variety is reputed to be difficult to manage by the traditional snake charmers (kelas).

Debasis,
Good to hear about your school days. In 2005 when the Nokia Telecom SEZ in Sriperumbudur, Chennai was being setup, the workers have killed many snakes while clearing the place. Unfortunately the snakes help in controlling the rodent population which is skyrocketing these days due to want of predators.

[Arpan Saha]

now a days, almost all snakes r very difficult to spot... mainly due to urbanization and killing...