Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake

“With in-situ images I tend to look for wide-angle compositions, a kind of herp photography that’s particularly challenging, as there are just so many unknowns that need to come together. You can hike photogenic locations that animals frequent, but when you do find an animal, making an image isn’t that straightforward. Most are too obscured, too active, or just in a place that feels off, but occasionally there’s a frame to be made. And that’s the challenge that I love: how to create an interesting composition and lighting in often less-than-ideal settings while trying not to alter an animal’s behavior.

In this case, I found a Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus pyrrhus) in what seemed to be an awkward resting position in a desert wash in Southern California. The moon was beginning to set behind the mountains, but the clouds still picked up little highlights that matched the saltbush’s flaring lines, making for interesting background ambient light. The moon was quickly disappearing so I rushed to look for a composition that worked. After getting the foreground and background light I liked on a bush a few yards away, I carefully set up for the snake. To light this shot, I used a long exposure with a slightly underexposed flash on a large softbox and a continuous light with a homemade snoot to light paint just the snake.” – Nick Kanakis