Post your 1 best photo from 2015!

Antonsrkn · Post by **Antonsrkn** » January 14th, 2016, 5:37 am

Hi all,

2015 was a good year for me, I started the year off working in Ecuador and afterwards started graduate school, I got a chance to take some fun images along the way. I have always liked these threads that get a wide amount of members posting their photos, so thought I'd make this one.

Lets see your best herp shot from 2015, in the interest of really making you think about it and pick the best, lets try to limit this to only ONE shot. Post a SINGLE shot that you feel was your best, whether because of the subject matter or execution. If you can't decide just flip a coin.

Surprisingly my favorite shot isn't of a rare target species, but rather a photo of a common species where I really thought out the image I wanted to get and planned it until I was able to capture the scene like I planned to. Extra surprising that this was my favorite shot as it was taken at a time when my camera gear was failing me and I was having a variety of problems and difficulty overcoming them.

Anole in Cloud Forest Habitat by Anton, on Flickr

noah k. · Post by **noah k.** » January 14th, 2016, 6:23 am

Mine is also a common species, Eastern Coachwhip.

Muchobirdnerd · Post by **Muchobirdnerd** » January 14th, 2016, 8:18 am

Anton great idea. This shot of Nymphargus cariticommatus is from when I bumped into you in southern Ecuador.

Also Anolis aequatorialis is an amazing sp. great shot.

Nymphargus cariticommatus by MUCHMORE DESIGN LLC., on Flickr

AndyKraemer · Post by **AndyKraemer** » January 14th, 2016, 8:52 am

Great idea Anton! Here's my favorite shot, an endemic gecko from Isabela Island, Galápagos

Phyllodactylus cf. galapagoensis by Andy Kraemer, on Flickr

Zach_Lim · Post by **Zach_Lim** » January 14th, 2016, 10:46 am

Santa Cruz Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus niger)

semasko · Post by **semasko** » January 14th, 2016, 3:01 pm

Pile of 30 Timber Rattlesnakes from Pennsylvania

Rman · Post by **Rman** » January 14th, 2016, 3:43 pm

Corn Snake, Louisiana by Armin, on Flickr

Soopaman · Post by **Soopaman** » January 14th, 2016, 3:48 pm

Hard to decide, but I put a lot of effort into this:

Crotalus horridus (Canebrake Rattlesnake) by Kyle, on Flickr

intermedius · Post by **intermedius** » January 14th, 2016, 4:08 pm

Northern Pinesnake by Justin (NoNameKey), on Flickr

- Justin

Rancorrye · Post by **Rancorrye** » January 14th, 2016, 10:31 pm

I don't know if it's my best photo, but it sure is my personal favorite.

Utah Mountain Kingsnake-Lampropeltis pyromelana infralabialis by Rye Jones, on Flickr

Josh Young · Post by **Josh Young** » January 14th, 2016, 11:50 pm

Maybe not my best, but it's my favorite from last year.

Mole kingsnake from Apalachicola National Forest. by Josh Young, on Flickr

Berkeley Boone · Post by **Berkeley Boone** » January 15th, 2016, 9:48 am

Nice photos, everyone. Here is my contribution...
(As others have said, not my best photo from 2015, but my favorite. I have not touched or edited this photo at all- it came out perfectly for me!)

Barking Treefrog, Hyla gratiosa

61hyl gra by B Boone, on Flickr

--Berkeley

bgorum · Post by **bgorum** » January 15th, 2016, 11:08 am

I'm going to put up this one. I have other photos I took last year that were more popular with other people, but that's o.k. The reasons I chose this one are that this is a picture that was a number of years in the making. By that I mean that I had originally thought about a picture like this, with a different diamond-back, but very close to the same location. I found that individual at the wrong time of day to do the shot and I always regretted not going back to it at sunset to take the picture I really wanted. I love getting second chances! The picture is also in situ, which all my favorite pictures are. It also combines natural and man made elements. That's something I've started to do more recently. When I first started out taking pictures I always wanted to eliminate human elements in my nature pictures, but more and more I've come to realize that always doing that is dishonest.

NACairns · Post by **NACairns** » January 15th, 2016, 7:28 pm

Wow, everybody these are stunning shots, love the different styles (framing, DOF, exposures). My attempt was from an amazing night in southern California were Jim (hellihooks) and Tyler took me on an night hike through a boulder field along the Mojave River seeing a number of cool species and getting to see an epic landscape at night. The shot its self was an afterthought, I had finished some low angle shots of this snake (the 3rd or 4th sidewinder in 20 minutes) and Tyler took a dorsal shot with his cell phone, so monkey see monkey do, I copied him. I've posted it before but this is my addition to this thread.
Best,
Nick

Crotalus cerastes by N Cairns, on Flickr

lanceolatus · Post by **lanceolatus** » January 16th, 2016, 8:23 am

Well, mine is not particularly spectacular when it comes to quality, but that's my favourite because I had to go to walk for several hours in a deep forest at night to take it.

It's a fight between two Sachatamia albomaculata males.

Naja Bungarus · Post by **Naja Bungarus** » January 16th, 2016, 12:50 pm

Nice photo's all

Trimeresurus albolabris, streching it's jaws in the area of Palau waterfall, Thailand, a rainy night in August

Chad M. Lane · Post by **Chad M. Lane** » January 16th, 2016, 4:21 pm

I didn't get to take many photos last year, but here is my favorite although an ok shot.

lateralis by Chad Lane, on Flickr

chrish · Post by **chrish** » January 17th, 2016, 7:44 am

Some wonderfuls shots so far. Looking at all these shots got me thinking about where we've come in field herp photography over the last 20 years.

It used to be these herp in habitat shots were "all the rage" and everyone was trying to emulate them. It used to be tough back in the film/slide days because you really had to plan carefully (or take a LOT of shots). Now with digital photography they are getting pretty easy to shoot. But occasionally I see one that makes me stop and say "wow, that's creative!"

bgorum's shot with the city lights at dusk behind it is really special. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

The lighting on Anton's anole shot is beautifully done. That's a wall hanger, for sure.

But so far, Kyle's horridus shot continues to blow me away. Very creative, very well executed. I admire the patience it must have taken to get that shot set up and exectuted (in the dark, with a venomous snake!). Was that front or rear curtain synced or did you use some other light source?

Well done all.

mfb · Post by **mfb** » January 17th, 2016, 11:17 am

Wonderful! Its great to see the many different species and photo styles from all the contributors.

HerpMan ATL · Post by **HerpMan ATL** » January 17th, 2016, 6:41 pm

I had quite a few lifers this year but this tiny, little, Smooth Earth Snake was my favorite photo. It's my first reptile photo Ive printed, framed and hung on the wall.

Snake Art by cre8foru2009, on Flickr

kaptainkory · Post by **kaptainkory** » January 17th, 2016, 9:09 pm

Ouachita Streambed Salamander by Kory Roberts, on Flickr

simus343 · Post by **simus343** » January 17th, 2016, 9:24 pm

This underwater cottonmouth. It changed what I had previously thought about them, and had some nice clarity and color on this young individual. I had always read, been told, and only ever seen cottonmouths seek shelter on land or swim away in water to defend. This little critter just slipped underwater in a very shallow spot and sat there until I left.

Agkistrodon piscivorous spp.

DracoRJC · Post by **DracoRJC** » January 18th, 2016, 10:15 am

Green anole, Anolis carolinensis by Ryan Collister, on Flickr

This in-situ shot from Sabal Palm Sanctuary in south Texas last spring is probably my favorite shot of the year for me.

Ryan

Soopaman · Post by **Soopaman** » January 18th, 2016, 10:26 am

Nice shots everyone. Bill I really like that shot of the atrox with the city in the background. Bravo!

chrish wrote:Some wonderfuls shots so far. Looking at all these shots got me thinking about where we've come in field herp photography over the last 20 years.

It used to be these herp in habitat shots were "all the rage" and everyone was trying to emulate them. It used to be tough back in the film/slide days because you really had to plan carefully (or take a LOT of shots). Now with digital photography they are getting pretty easy to shoot. But occasionally I see one that makes me stop and say "wow, that's creative!"

bgorum's shot with the city lights at dusk behind it is really special. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

The lighting on Anton's anole shot is beautifully done. That's a wall hanger, for sure.

But so far, Kyle's horridus shot continues to blow me away. Very creative, very well executed. I admire the patience it must have taken to get that shot set up and exectuted (in the dark, with a venomous snake!). Was that front or rear curtain synced or did you use some other light source?

Well done all.

Chris, this took some planning in advance, as well as luck of finding the snake on the right night to do it. I had in mind where and how I wanted to do the shot, and on a crystal clear, mostly moonless night I happened to come across a horridus to do it with. I went to the area and took several practice shots to get the position of the foreground and the background stars right, and figure out what settings I needed.
After doing so, I placed the snake in the deadfall jumble near the tree, and with the camera on a tripod, I remotely took a flash photo of that scene. The foreground was lit, and the background totally black. Leaving the camera in place, I moved the snake, and changed the settings on the camera to what I had found necessary to capture the stars. After several tries, I had a pair of photos I was satisfied with, and then at home I merged the two photos, one exposed for the snake in the foreground, the other exposed to capture the night sky. A better photographer could have gotten this all in one shot I'm sure, but this was the easiest way for me to do it, and I think it came out fairly well.

bgorum · Post by **bgorum** » January 18th, 2016, 3:41 pm

Soopaman wrote: Chris, this took some planning in advance, as well as luck of finding the snake on the right night to do it. I had in mind where and how I wanted to do the shot, and on a crystal clear, mostly moonless night I happened to come across a horridus to do it with. I went to the area and took several practice shots to get the position of the foreground and the background stars right, and figure out what settings I needed.
After doing so, I placed the snake in the deadfall jumble near the tree, and with the camera on a tripod, I remotely took a flash photo of that scene. The foreground was lit, and the background totally black. Leaving the camera in place, I moved the snake, and changed the settings on the camera to what I had found necessary to capture the stars. After several tries, I had a pair of photos I was satisfied with, and then at home I merged the two photos, one exposed for the snake in the foreground, the other exposed to capture the night sky. A better photographer could have gotten this all in one shot I'm sure, but this was the easiest way for me to do it, and I think it came out fairly well.

I've done a little of this as well and I don't think its possible to do in a single exposure. The problem is that the Milky Way requires an exposure of about 30 seconds @ f2.8, using an ISO of 1600 or so. For the herp you will almost certainly want a smaller aperture than that which would require an even higher ISO and the concomitant increase in noise. (If you use any shutter speed longer than 30 seconds with a lens of 10mm on dx or 14mm on fx you will get star trails instead of nice points of light. Longer lenses require even shorter shutter speeds to prevent star trails). You also need to refocus between shots because the stars will be out of focus light blobs when the focus is set on the herp. Incidentally, I like your shot a lot better than any of the ones I took this summer. I want to work with this some more next summer during some night hikes.

Here's one of my attempts with a Spadefoot.

and here's an example of what happens when you forget to refocus for the sky exposure

speedy · Post by **speedy** » January 19th, 2016, 12:48 am

This is probably my favourite shot for 2015, it was very hard to pick though and there are easy 20 to 30 others that I would be proud to post.

A Giant Frog (Cyclorana australis) from North-west Queensland, Australia. These frogs are burrowers and only come out with decent amounts of rain. This was the second storm for the day. A lot of planning and practice went into taking this shot. I ended up with only a couple of minutes to try it on this occasion before getting hit by the storm.

Giant frog in ts element by Ryan Francis, on Flickr

the_cw1 · Post by **the_cw1** » January 19th, 2016, 9:11 am

I love the shots! The anole starting all this is amazing. I can't wait to be in Costa Rica this time next month.

Banded Tree Monitor - V. Scalaris

IMG_3758 by Derek Halm, on Flickr

bgorum · Post by **bgorum** » January 19th, 2016, 6:23 pm

speedy wrote:This is probably my favourite shot for 2015, it was very hard to pick though and there are easy 20 to 30 others that I would be proud to post.

A Giant Frog (Cyclorana australis) from North-west Queensland, Australia. These frogs are burrowers and only come out with decent amounts of rain. This was the second storm for the day. A lot of planning and practice went into taking this shot. I ended up with only a couple of minutes to try it on this occasion before getting hit by the storm.

Giant frog in ts element by Ryan Francis, on Flickr

That's pretty freakin' sweet!

Mike Pingleton · Post by **Mike Pingleton** » January 20th, 2016, 7:03 pm

I liked how this one turned out. Isla Santa Catalina in the Gulf of California, Baja Sur, Mexico. This Crotalus catalinensis was several feet off the ground and slowly making its way through a bush. We spent the night on the island and had the chance to observe a number of these snakes foraging in the dark.

-Mike

P1140154 by Mike Pingleton, on Flickr

Daniel D Dye · Post by **Daniel D Dye** » January 20th, 2016, 7:47 pm

Awesome photos!

Most of mine for 2015 were inverts, but I managed to find a few herps as well.

Southern Hognose Snake (Heterodon simus) by Daniel D Dye II, on Flickr

Nshepard · Post by **Nshepard** » January 20th, 2016, 8:22 pm

Toss up between these two:

1 - Eastern Coachwhip - Really like the prespective of this shot, not something I usually go for but I really like it.

-OR-

2 - Arizona Ridge-nose Rattlesnake - More along the lines of my usual style, but I love the pose. Not perfect, blades of grass etc, but I like that adds a more real feeling to it.

Crazins · Post by **Crazins** » January 20th, 2016, 9:52 pm

In situ and my favorite.

Re-edited C. c. lateroropens by Marisa Ishimatsu, on Flickr

kkchome · Post by **kkchome** » January 21st, 2016, 12:32 am

Azemiops feae [Fea's Viper] by Kevin, on Flickr

krismunk · Post by **krismunk** » January 21st, 2016, 5:07 am

Great selection that I can not even aspire to match.

I am certainly not a photographer. I do not plan my photos, I do not combine multiple shots into one image (usually don't do any editing at all, except occasional cropping and - on rare occasions when I'm particularly displeased with the colours of an image I am particularly pleased with in other respects - tweaking of colours and light), do not bring along any sort of studio or props, do not have fancy gear, wouldn't know how to use it if I did...

Generally speaking, I just take my point & shoot and do exactly that, mostly in situ and with the camera on default settings. Once in a blue moon I will try to make it out when conditions (light, perhaps snow or fall leaves) seem ideal for an attractive shot and sometimes I try to pose my subjects or play around with other camera settings. By and large, though, everything beyond framing the subject nicely and positioning myself correctly in respect to natural light sources is beyond my level of skill, (sometimes even that is), and the fancier I try to get, the more miserably I fail.

That said, of course my selection is a simple picture. Nothing is easier than photographing a viper sitting still atop a sand dune. I have done this shot with variations lots of times and results are always among my favourites, simply because it is difficult to do anything significant (relative to my level of skill and ambition) wrong.

Of course it's a boring image and even I can point out flaws, nonetheless...

Asnyder · Post by **Asnyder** » January 21st, 2016, 7:02 am

Oh man this one is tough! Lots of great images in this thread already. Here's a cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) from Mississippi.

[/url]Agape by Andrew Snyder, on Flickr[/url]

justinm · Post by **justinm** » January 21st, 2016, 8:46 am

This was arguably my best find and my best shot. A gravid female Eastern Indigo, 6' plus and gravid.

Drymarchon corais couperi by Justin Michels, on Flickr

Tom · Post by **Tom** » January 21st, 2016, 1:53 pm

Ummm.... can we get a full story on this one!

kkchome wrote:

Jeroen Speybroeck · Post by **Jeroen Speybroeck** » January 21st, 2016, 5:32 pm

What a great, great, GREAT thread! We should have this every year!

I love how there's a mix of in situ candy, superb 'staged' shots and stuff that's maybe not top-notch but has a personal story to go with it.

That sidewinder in its lair... With the tracks...... So much good stuff here, but that's really so cool. I still don't get how US herpers tend to forget what an amazing species that is; not the prettiest or most fierce rattler, but surely the cutest, no?

Tom wrote:Ummm.... can we get a full story on this one!
kkchome wrote:

Yesss, please!!!

So, can I play too? Instead of going for a Rhacophorus, Trimeresurus, blue coral, ... from Malaysia, I thought I'd go for something local (i.e. Belgium, Europe, in my case).

Every year, male moor frogs Rana arvalis go from brown frog (fairly similar to the US wood frog) to crazy smurf. Hardly lasts more than two days; timing is everything. On top of that, they tend to be pretty shy, diving into the deep with every sudden movement. It all happens in March, which is early season here, and calling males and general anxiety in frogs and herpers alike often tends to go with passing clouds blocking the feeble rays of sunlight. The price is worth it, though. Not in 2015, but when many males start to call (a soft 'woop-woop-woop'), you can get cool shots of a whole chorus of blue dots in an otherwise still rather colourless bog, given the time of year. The pic shows that the missus does not get to become as pretty is Mr Blue.

Nick Scobel · Post by **Nick Scobel** » January 21st, 2016, 8:54 pm

Lots of great entries in this thread, really enjoyed them. It was tough to choose just one, but I settled with this one.

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake by Nick Scobel, on Flickr

Agkistrodon38 · Post by **Agkistrodon38** » January 21st, 2016, 9:33 pm

Loving the photos guys! Here's my best picture of a ribbon snake from snake road in October

shanicy · Post by **shanicy** » January 22nd, 2016, 11:43 am

Happy brown vine snake from Costa Rica...

Brown Vine Snake - Oxybelis aeneus by Shani Cohen, on Flickr

Aneides Aeneus · Post by **Aneides Aeneus** » January 22nd, 2016, 1:30 pm

Wow, all of these photos are incredible! Mine can't compare to any of these but here it is anyway - a pygmy salamander from the spruce-fir forests of the Great Smoky Mountains:

Southern pygmy salamander by aneidesaeneus, on Flickr

dwakefield · Post by **dwakefield** » January 23rd, 2016, 4:51 am

Amazing photos in this thread!

This is my favorite photo from 2015. Taken in December at Big Cypress National Preserve.

Will Wells · Post by **Will Wells** » January 23rd, 2016, 7:03 am

I really like all the photos posted here. Keep up the awesome work and I'm really excited about 2016!

simus343 · Post by **simus343** » January 24th, 2016, 2:35 pm

I showed this thread to my friend and co-worker Bob Walker the other day and he said that I should, and gave me permission to, show his #1 photo from 2015 for field herping - as he doesn't feel like he has the time to deal with computer gimmicks such as forums and what not. Honestly, as far as field herping photography in Florida goes, his shot has to be the best I've personally ever seen. He saw the pine snake halfway down a pocket gopher hole. It went in and when Bob looked in, this is what he saw:

Photo By: Bob Walker

simus343 · Post by **simus343** » January 24th, 2016, 2:35 pm

Double post: Ignore.

orionmystery · Post by **orionmystery** » January 26th, 2016, 5:26 am

Great thread!

Anton- tough one! LOL...near impossible to pick one out of so many. I couldn't decide between this one and the Theloderma leprosum.

Chrysopelea paradisi copy by Kurt (Orionmystery) G, on Flickr

frogfish · Post by **frogfish** » January 26th, 2016, 7:57 am

Mine is probably this B.c.i. from Honduras

Boa Constrictor by Santosh Shanmuga, on Flickr

kyle loucks · Post by **kyle loucks** » January 26th, 2016, 5:53 pm

One of personal favorites from 2015
Eastern Hognose - Heterodon platyrhinos

h12 by krloucks, on Flickr

Saunders · Post by **Saunders** » January 27th, 2016, 7:36 pm

Eastern Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorous) by Saunders Drukker, on Flickr