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Here's a four-foot Multibanded Krait (Bungarus multicinctus) I came across around midnight yesterday. He was sitting under a bench in a little picnic pavilion built by a trail head to provide hikers with a cool and shady resting place. Right next to the pavilion there's a little waterfall, which, thanks to the abundance of frogs, turns the pastoral, picturesque place into Venom Central at night: besides the Krait, there were two Green Tree Vipers getting ready for a midnight snack.

Seeing a Multibanded Krait move is a mesmerizing experience, as it involves a nifty optical trick: this snake moves by undulation, which in combination with the black & white bands somehow creates the impression that the creature is "swimming" in place, and not moving forward at all - think Michael Jackson's Moonwalk, serpent-style. Of course, it's all an illusion, and every time I watch this spectacle, I wake up after a few seconds and realize that the beast actually is heading somewhere, often enough straight for me

No close-ups today, as this one was less docile than the others I've met so far; he kept trying to get off the road as fast as possible, and I was alone.

Now for the tech bit: as you will certainly agree, these pix are far less than desirable on a number of levels (read "crap"). What could I have done to keep the glare off the snake and reduce the washed-out blacks? A diffuser (which I have, but never used so far)? Or maybe different lighting? I have a wireless flash that works in combination with the onboard flash. Would these two light sources have worked? If so, where should I have put them?

Thanks in advance!

Hans
PS: The yellow bits on the road are acacia confusa blossoms. Just in case ye wuz wonderin'

Night time shots are tough. Looks like you could have used a little more flash (diffused of course) and a higher shutter speed, lower F stop, higher ISO. That's my take on it. I could be way off since I don't take good pics very often.

Wow,
That Krait has some serious eyeshine, much like Trans-pecos Rat Snakes here!!!
Bill

Did you get the fighting krait at night? I've read that the difference in night/day mode is extreme.

Shiny scales are tough to capture. Minimizing shine helps, but I've never seen a photo capture what my eyes have seen. There are some accomplished photographers on this forum, and I doubt that any of them have ever been satisfied with their pics of said herps. It's impossible!

Shane

Thanks, everyone!

atrox: why a lower f/stop? I'm totally paranoid about shallow DOF. And how would a higher ISO benefit?

I'll definitely give the diffuser a whirl next time, though.


This might sound dumb, but I only see them at night, as they's a die-urnal bunch I've heard (read) about the mood difference, too.


Should I rejoice now, or go and kill myself?

Lower Fstop would let more light in, and the higher ISO would do better in lower light situations. I would play with these together and then independently as well. I do a lot of changing around on most animals I shoot to see what my camera responds to best.

Thanks again, atrox. I'll definitely take all this into consideration. I found another krait last night and played around with the setting a bit, plus I used a diffuser. Looks much better. I'll post the results soon.

Shooting snakes at night you're going to have a little glare/shine no matter what. It can be fixed in photoshop, but it's a time consuming detailed task.

Always use your diffuser, day or night. With putting together an elaborate multi-flash setup, the diffuser is your best friend.

A couple of companies make a large disk type flash gun that is already diffused, these would likely help a lot as they distribute the light more evenly over a large area.

Cool finds by the way.

Thanks again! Taking everyone's input to heart, I've been running around the last two nights shooting everything with a diffuser (including yet another krait, as mentioned above), and will post the results as comparison pix as soon as I get around to it.

I've been waiting to see one of these.

Night time photography is tough. Black and white next to eachother is also tough for the automatic light readers of cameras. Most likely the automatic light reader picked up the road in the background and went with the black road reading, thus giving you too much light on the snake.

Why didn't I think of that? I spent quite some time learning how to deal with high contrast situations (black bear on snow field, white owl in coal mine, that sort of stuff) and am vaguely familiar with the related techniques. However, with the color pattern on this snake it's more a case of fifty vaseline-covered black bears lined up on the beach, each holding a gleaming white surfboard next to his body, and all of them swaying drunkenly to some inaudible rhythm. Drives you crazy, it does.

Good thing there are so many kraits around to try all these new ideas on....

Anyway, here are my latest attempts. This time the background wasn't so dark, I was much closer, the snake didn't freak as much, AND I used a diffuser. I believe I'm slowly getting somewhere....what do y'all think?

That first Krait shot is beautiful. I like the colorful leaf in contrast to the black and white and the background is much warmer. I almost feel like I want to pick this guy up and think he's a kingsnake, but on second thought, no thanks, I think I'll keep my distance.