chris_harrison

The problem with black headed pythons is similar to the problems you can encounter photographing some Cal Kings. There is a wide latitude of tones contained within one animal. To get head detail, you are going to have to accept some overexposure of the light body bands. I have shot a few pictures of melanocephalus and have never had much luck in bringing out the eye without a lot of flash highlighting. Try using a weak fill flash on an overcast day and bracket over a stop or stop and a half.

I have seen sleeping snakes jump noticeably in response to a flash. I don't know how much it disturbs them, but they certainly seem to startle. I think this is because they shut down the threshhold of input from the optic nerve when they sleep (they have no eyelids). It is much the same as you not hearing quiet noises when you sleep but waking up when exposed to a loud noise. The same is probably true for sleeping fish.

I do a lot of macro flash photography with my 600si. I usually only use one flash, although I have used multiple flashes in the past. I have found that a carefully aimed single flash can give much more interesting shots than the standard two parallel flashes in a bracket. If I am worried about shadows, I frequently use a small collapsible silver or white reflector to fill in some of the shadows.

 

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I have a stroboframe macro flash bracket and I like it although I prefer the flexibility of hand holding the flash to get the light the way I want it. Make sure you know how to fill flash and reduce the power of your flash for best results.

1. I can't say that I am a great nature photographer, but I have photographed a lot of snakes. You will have a great deal of trouble freezing a E. Diamondback's strike at any normal sync speeds. Viperid snakes strike very fast. As to the actual dealing with the snake, I suggest you leave this to a professional (not some local redneck who claims to have some expertise in snake handling). You can tell a professional from an amateur by watching how eager they are to pin the snake down. Professionals can manipulate venomous snakes without ever laying a hand on them. Be aware it can be really difficult to judge distances (strike distance) through a lens! Always have another person looking at your subject to camera distance from above, after all, the subject will!