Snake strike - Graphic images included
Discussion
Having recently been given a slide scanner for my birthday (a Plustek OpticFilm 7300) I've begun transferring some of the 35mm slides that my family has accumulated over the last few decades onto my PC. I'm still messing around with the settings but the quality seems impressive so far.
I thought some of you might be interested in a sequence taken by my father in the mid 1980s when we were living abroad. On an afternoon walk through the bush, we stopped by a riverbank where I came across a resting Green Tree Python (Chondropython viridis). We took the python home and built a large enclosure for it, where it lived until being released into the wild again shortly before we returned to the UK. Being a keen naturalist and photographer, my father set about trying to capture a sequence of photos showing the snake striking at a mouse.
Living in a third world country didn't help matters - photographic shops were thin on the ground so the set up had to be improvised using whatever equipment was available.
Being awkward creatures, most snakes are only really interested in live prey so the first step involved building a contraption to capture live mice. When the snake needed to feed, a mouse was captured and placed on a branch in completely dark room. The snake was placed on a nearby branch and the basic idea, as I recall it, was that when the snake detected the mouse and began its strike, the movement triggered a tripod-mounted Nikon FG with a flash (the branch was wired to a relay somehow - I was only 9 at the time so I don't remember all the details!)
Neither snakes nor mice are renown for their willingness to do as they're told, so the process was a hit and miss affair but there were some fairly successful shots in the end...!
I haven't got to grips with re-sizing images yet so I've simply taken screenshots of the scanned slides to get them under the 2MB limit of the PH photo uploader. No doubt there are far better ways of achieving the same ends but I don't know how yet!
I believe you can enlarge them by clicking on them and then clicking the image on the Thumbsnap website.
Does anyone have any tips on how to clean 35mm slides? I've been brushing loose dust specks off with a fine brush but I'm not sure how to clean off the more stubborn spots or what appears to be some sort of fungus.
I thought some of you might be interested in a sequence taken by my father in the mid 1980s when we were living abroad. On an afternoon walk through the bush, we stopped by a riverbank where I came across a resting Green Tree Python (Chondropython viridis). We took the python home and built a large enclosure for it, where it lived until being released into the wild again shortly before we returned to the UK. Being a keen naturalist and photographer, my father set about trying to capture a sequence of photos showing the snake striking at a mouse.
Living in a third world country didn't help matters - photographic shops were thin on the ground so the set up had to be improvised using whatever equipment was available.
Being awkward creatures, most snakes are only really interested in live prey so the first step involved building a contraption to capture live mice. When the snake needed to feed, a mouse was captured and placed on a branch in completely dark room. The snake was placed on a nearby branch and the basic idea, as I recall it, was that when the snake detected the mouse and began its strike, the movement triggered a tripod-mounted Nikon FG with a flash (the branch was wired to a relay somehow - I was only 9 at the time so I don't remember all the details!)
Neither snakes nor mice are renown for their willingness to do as they're told, so the process was a hit and miss affair but there were some fairly successful shots in the end...!
I haven't got to grips with re-sizing images yet so I've simply taken screenshots of the scanned slides to get them under the 2MB limit of the PH photo uploader. No doubt there are far better ways of achieving the same ends but I don't know how yet!
I believe you can enlarge them by clicking on them and then clicking the image on the Thumbsnap website.
Does anyone have any tips on how to clean 35mm slides? I've been brushing loose dust specks off with a fine brush but I'm not sure how to clean off the more stubborn spots or what appears to be some sort of fungus.
Edited by Risotto on Monday 31st August 19:20
Risotto said:
Does anyone have any tips on how to clean 35mm slides? I've been brushing loose dust specks off with a fine brush but I'm not sure how to clean off the more stubborn spots or what appears to be some sort of fungus.
Alcohol should be used to clean both slides & negs, dabbed onto the surface & gentle buffed with a fine microfibre cloth, as used for cleaning cassete tapes & electrical boards.NOTE: I definately wouldn't attempt to dust them 'dry' as you have been doing - this may well leave fine scratches on the film surface.
There was a time when you could waltz into your local chemists (Boots etc) & buy a bottle of alcohol over the counter but now you have to have a license to buy the stuff, thanks mainly to the druggies/alcoholics out there........thankfully I have a 'friend' to top my supply up.
I really like the first image of the snakes head - faultless IMHO........I'd be interested to know which Slide used? Looks like Fuji Velvia (50 asa) to me, it was always good for vibrant greens.
I have somewhere in the region of 40,000 images on E6 & will one day start transfering them over to digital via my Benq ScanWit 2720S.
Backseatdriver said:
To say that snakes will not eat dead prey is rubbish!!
Well, Wikipedia says: "They prey almost entirely on amphibians, especially the common toad and the common frog, although they may also occasionally eat mammals and fish. Captive snakes have been observed taking earthworms offered by hand, but dead prey items were never taken." if you read/believe anything at this site.I don't follow what you are making a fuss about - it's hardly bear baiting, dog fighting or even fox-hunting that we're watching - you can see worse on the Discovery channel
Backseatdriver said:
Disgusting, what ghastly images. I don't know how any normal human being can feed live prey to anything - and then to photograph the process is beyond me.
So I suppose if it's not photographed it doesn't happen then?I'm sorry, but if I was going to be offended by pictures I wouldn't look at them (and there was a description of them beforehand!).
OP, very impressive shots, I bet they took a hell of a lot of attempts to get them!
Backseatdriver said:
Disgusting, what ghastly images. I don't know how any normal human being can feed live prey to anything - and then to photograph the process is beyond me. snip
Disagree completely. These images are fascinating, esp the one where the snake is just about to reach the mouse. Without such slow motion / high speed frozen images we would understand a lot less about the natural world. You see similar images on a lot of natural history programmes, e.g the killer whales capturing sealions off the coast of Patagnoia, virtually any programme featuring sharks, lots of footage of spiders, cheetahs running down wildebeest on the Masai Mara etc.Chris
Backseatdriver said:
Disgusting, what ghastly images. I don't know how any normal human being can feed live prey to anything - and then to photograph the process is beyond me. To say that snakes will not eat dead prey is rubbish!!
Don't like angling either, I take it? Or are maggots not cute enough 
Actually, I'd recommend you don't visit any raptor aviaries either, where the birds are often fed live chicks.
Great shots, OP. Might be worth dropping some wildlife orgs a line (BBC, Nat Geo etc)
Edited by Famous Graham on Monday 31st August 17:25
OK, well thanks for the comments, good and bad! I guess I should perhaps have mentioned in the title that it's not something you might want to look at if you're squeamish. Maybe a mod could add this?
I should also add that the constriction process is a quick one and, despite how it may look in a couple of the shots, the mouse is dead before the snake actually begins to swallow it.
I'm not sure I follow the argument that it's somehow wrong to photograph the act. The snake is simply catching and eating it's food as it would in the wild. Whether or not it's photographed while doing it seems neither here nor there.
Oh, thanks for the tip about using alcohol to clean the slides Quick Silver.
I should also add that the constriction process is a quick one and, despite how it may look in a couple of the shots, the mouse is dead before the snake actually begins to swallow it.
I'm not sure I follow the argument that it's somehow wrong to photograph the act. The snake is simply catching and eating it's food as it would in the wild. Whether or not it's photographed while doing it seems neither here nor there.
Oh, thanks for the tip about using alcohol to clean the slides Quick Silver.
Edited by Risotto on Monday 31st August 19:09
Backseatdriver said:
It wasn't in the wild was it, it was a reptile that had been removed by humans from it's natural environment!!!!!!!!!!!!
And provided a much safer and more cushy life for it.Is another way to look at it.
Personally I am not keen on the idea of feeding an animal live prey. It is in fact illegal in this country to provide live vertebrae as food for another animal (unless there is licenses for certain keepers?)
However, in this case it would seem that the mice were wild animals that were caught. In most circumstances they would be killed anyway if on domestic property.
The photos are interesting and certainly have developed discussion!
Backseatdriver said:
If you don't mind agent 006 I am not "hysterical" - I am merely expressing my opinion. OK!
Very forcefully. You are imposing your morals elsewhere, when you have no knowledge of the OP and (seemingly) little about snakes...You don't like the subject matter - fine, make your point politely and then don't bother looking at the thread again!
Quick silver said:
Risotto said:
Does anyone have any tips on how to clean 35mm slides? I've been brushing loose dust specks off with a fine brush but I'm not sure how to clean off the more stubborn spots or what appears to be some sort of fungus.
Alcohol should be used to clean both slides & negs, dabbed onto the surface & gentle buffed with a fine microfibre cloth, as used for cleaning cassete tapes & electrical boards.NOTE: I definately wouldn't attempt to dust them 'dry' as you have been doing - this may well leave fine scratches on the film surface.
There was a time when you could waltz into your local chemists (Boots etc) & buy a bottle of alcohol over the counter but now you have to have a license to buy the stuff, thanks mainly to the druggies/alcoholics out there........thankfully I have a 'friend' to top my supply up.
http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/isopropyl-alcohol-b...
Backseatdriver said:
havoc do not assume what my knowledge level is regarding ANY subject please because you know nothing about me and don't tell me not to look at the thread again, thank you.
Has it not occurred to you that kicking-off on here against someone else COULD result in people taking offence at your tone and comments in return?!? Particularly when the issue is the very subjective one of morals.
IMHO you WERE out of order. And people said as much. That you then were rude back to those people just reinforces the negative opinions that your first comment generated. Think about it...
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff