There are lots of copperhead snakes in the Great Trinity Forest, but you don’t see them that often. And if not for the floodwaters from the Trinity River making dry land scarce, I probably would not have seen this one, either.
After I shot wide-angle environmental portraits to show the surrounding floodwaters, I went in close and got these close-ups. For the first image I used a shallow depth of field (f/4.5) to try and keep just the side of the snake’s head and eye sharp and let the rest go softly out of focus. That approach works especially well since the snake’s head was turned parallel to me and my camera.
For the second image, with the snake facing me, I did not want the nose to be completely out of focus. So I “stopped down” to a small aperture (f/16) to increase my depth of field, focused on the eyes and hoped the snake’s nose would come out reasonably sharp at that aperture.
Image 1: Canon 1DX. 180m macro. ISO 400. f/4.5 @ 1/500 second. EV +1 ⅓. Image 2: Canon 1DX. 180m macro. ISO 400. f/16 @ 1/40 second. EV +1 ⅓.
Great captures with nice detail. Interesting how their eyes are speckled like their skin. Thanks both for the captures and info.