Rattlesnake Rattling

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:53 pm

This is a shot I've wanted to get for years....Today at the zoo, I was photographing merrily away, and a woman watching our pygmy rattlesnake announced, "Wow, the pygmy rattlesnake is rattling!" I changed lenses as I moved over to see, and sure enough, he was buzzing his tail on-and-off. Something was bugging him. He is an itty-bitty snake, this rattle is less than half an inch long, and I couldn't hear it.

For a long time I've envisioned shooting this with flash but a long exposure that would let the rattle blur out. I found the light in this exhibit was problematic--It wasn't terribly well lit. After a couple of failed tries, I found that dragging the shutter out to 1/40th of a second and cranking the ISO as far as it would go on my camera (ISO 1250) got a decent "ghost" of the shaking tail. Unfortunately, but the time I'd worked this out, the little guy had had enough, and instead of staying out and rattling, he crawled off where he couldn't be seen. So I only got this one shot. At 1/40th second, handheld (even though pretty well braced) it is not the clearest shot I've ever taken, but at least I got the shot!

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:34 pm

No motion blur visible at this resolution, Mike. The leaf under the tail looks perfect. But boy, that tail sure is whizzing! Nice job.

--Rik

Bill D · Post by **Bill D** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:50 pm

Nice catch. The blur of the tail tells the story here! It would not be as interesting without the sense of movement. Good choice not to use the flash.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 6:35 pm

Does look pretty good there Mike

, gives one a somewhat general idea of the direction of motion when rattling. Of course I rattle a lot myself but no one pays me no mind, well though enough to take a photograph of my tail.

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:18 pm

Bill D wrote:Nice catch. The blur of the tail tells the story here! It would not be as interesting without the sense of movement. Good choice not to use the flash.

Actually, I did use the flash here--Remember that the flash only goes for a very brief time during the exposure (1/250th second for my camera). The rest of the exposure is with ambient light (from overhead lamps in this case). I had to crank up ISO and open up wide enough (f/7.1, ridiculous for macro!) so that I got a dim image of the rattle from during the long exposure to the dim ambient light. So you see a fairly well-defined shape of the rattle from the flash, and just the dim image of the rattle from the ambient light after the flash had gone off--It is of course blurred due to the long exposure time.

So this shot depends on BOTH flash and ambient light. WIthout the flash, I would've had a rather dark exposure of the whole thing, and the rattle would be a continous blur, rather than a well-defined image plus a blur.

Hope that makes sense!

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:30 pm

Great shot Mike,,,I think a little sound would be cool with the picture.
http://www.nebeads.com/bredaimages/snake.mp3

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:13 pm

Mike B in OKlahoma wrote:So this shot depends on BOTH flash and ambient light. WIthout the flash, I would've had a rather dark exposure of the whole thing, and the rattle would be a continous blur, rather than a well-defined image plus a blur.

Hope that makes sense!

Mike, that sounds like a clear explanation to me. And a technique that works great for this subject. This and the cuttlefish in one week -- you sure you're not perfecting some sort of just-in-time working strategy?

One small nit/clarification: the flash part is almost certainly 1/1000 second or less. 1/250 sec is only a setting limit imposed by your mechanical shutter -- it's the fastest shutter speed at which the entire sensor is uncovered at once, for long enough to do the 1/1000 flash exposure.

Doug, cool sound, indeed!

I grew up around rattlesnakes, so that sound makes me STOP AND LOOK! Brings back a few memories...

--Rik

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:51 pm

Once up by North Yellowstone, near (you guessd it) Yellowstone National Park, I saw a cemetery on a map, and thought there might be some old tombstones or something worth photographing. The tombstones weren't memorable, and I didn't take any photos. But while I was walking around, I heard a loud buzzing sound that cut off abruptly. I have significant hearing loss in one ear, so I don't have good directional hearing, and I couldn't tell where it was. I looked around rather frantically, but no rattlesnakes. I took a single cautious step backwards, and the buzzing started again. Now I was trying to look behind me, no rattlesnake. I heard the buzzing again, and now I was getting rather frantic. As I looked around for the rattlesnake, I noticed a huge "lubber" grasshopper flying about, and the "rattling" stopped when he landed. Now I was pretty sure I knew the score, but I moved jerkily towards him, he took off, and sure enough, there was my "rattlesnake" sound!

Bill D · Post by **Bill D** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 4:27 am

I am very familiar with fill flash technique. I mis-read your original post.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 2:26 pm

Mike B in OKlahoma wrote:Now I was pretty sure I knew the score, ... there was my "rattlesnake" sound!

Yep. I've been frozen in my tracks by brushing against a particular kind of seed-head, and I once threw a large long-horned wood boring beetle clear across the room when it "rattled" at me -- despite having been warned that it would do that!

Better safe than sorry, I guess.

--Rik