Russel's Viper (Daboia russelii)

[Bibhav Behera]

Meet the snake responsible for the largest number of human deaths from snake bites in the world - The Russel's Viper. Clicked in Bharatpur near Chandaka...

Nikon D80
exp 1/13
f7.1
ISO 100 (Should hv been higher??)
Flash Fired

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Bibhav,
It seems to be afraid of you. It has moved away.

If you could have clicked with its head parallel to your image plane, then it would have been better. I wish you could have clicked in better light so that direct flash on the subject could have been avoided. You could have moved a little back and tried a lower angle.

Getting a nice shot of a poisonous snake is not easy. Most of the photographers who shoot snakes restrain them and click. Not the behaviour we expect from wildlife photographers.

[Bibhav Behera]

Bibhav,
Getting a nice shot of a poisonous snake is not easy. Most of the photographers who shoot snakes restrain them and click. Not the behaviour we expect from wildlife photographers.

This wasn't restrained in anyway. It was rescued all right but after leaving it this snap was taken. Yea light was really low so couldn't avoid the flash. I had to keep both my eyes open: one into the viewfinder and the other on the snake. They tend to be very quick to attack. You are right. I should have gone a bit lower. This was the first time I was so close to a russel's so didnt feel all that confident.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It is important to take precautions. So I had said it would have been better to move back and click. That would have lowered the angle, included more of the snake and more importantly given yourself some working space. You can see that when you move back the snake will tend to relax.

Since you were close, you could have tried to click part of the body to capture the details. At times, you can try clicking without taking the camera to your eyes. You may get an image if you click a lot. In the new cameras, they have live view function where you can view the subject like they do in a compact camera.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bibhav Behera]

Yea. Will try that next time. I have a few shots from a lower angle and from further away, but they wern't sharp. Wish my cam had Live View.

Any comments on the ISO? I thought it was way off...

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Unfortunately, the light level was low. Even if you would increase the ISO 200 the shutter speed will be too low. ISO 800 would have given you a shutter speed nearly equal to the focal length you were using. However, you would have got much more noise.

Since the subject was still, and you were using a lower focal length, you can take a chance.