Snake Fight
Snake Fight
Let’s move the snake in the room…. the elephant in the room out of the way… Yes I cropped this image quite a bit because I choose life! How did I get this image? Right place, right time.
A couple months ago I bought an e-mountain bike and I love it. It’s pedal assist so not a pseudo motorcycle. With the pedal assist you still get exercise which is exactly why I wanted this bike. I like to ride straight up hill from our house and up to the fire roads in the mountains. Two days before this image was made I had encountered a rattlesnake on my way coming down from the top of my trail. It was a bit of a shock because I’d never come face to face with a rattlesnake in nature. After that happened I decided I need to bring something better than my iPhone on my rides, so the 5D Mark IV with my 70-200 lens always comes with me now. On this particular day rode around a bend in the road and here stood a man and up the road about 50 feet from him was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen, two snakes…. mating??? Slowly I put my bike down and busted out my camera shooting images asap. I didn’t have time to worry about setting or composition because I knew what I was looking at wasn’t going to last long. On this fire road there are a lot of walkers and bikers and sure enough by the time the whole incident was over there was 5 of us astonished at what we’d all seen. This image to me is the best of the lot that I made. At one point I laid down on the ground to get a view at their level but the background was so busy and complicated with textures that they were lost in it. The plain dirt road ultimately made for the best background.
The consensus we all came to was that the snakes were most likely mating but it turns out they were two males and this is how the fight each other. They twist their bodies around each other, raise their heads and slam the other to the ground. Well, they push the other to the ground. Why don’t they bite each other you’re probably asking? Maybe is against the Rattlesnake Geneva Convention, who knows.
Details:
Canon 5D Mark IV
File Type: RAW
Lens: 70-200mm L IS
ISO: 400
Shooting Mode: M
Shutter: 1/800
Aperture: f5.6
Exposure Compensation:
Sometimes you just get lucky and happen to be somewhere where some really cool thing just happens. I feel like I’m typically not one of those people, but with this shot? I felt very blessed. Blessed to see something that even some park rangers have never even seen. It’s a rare display of nature being nature. From what I’ve learned since that day, these two snakes were most likely sparring for the chance to mate with a female in the area. Another interesting moment I will never forget.
Until next time…
