Black Snake

On my spring workshop of 2009, we were on our way up to the top of Mount Defiance in Ticonderoga NY.  We spotted this beautiful, big Black Snake sunning itself on this dead and bare tree that was off the shoulder.  The light was a bit harsh but we weren't going to miss this opportunity to photograph this gorgeous creature. 

I cautioned everyone to move slowly in assembling their gear.  I had parked about fifty feet up from where the snake was perched so we would not disturb it.  We setup, took shots, walked in a little closer (slowly) and shot more and repeated this until we were at the shoulders edge.  Another foot closer and you would fall into a steep valley where the trunk of the tree was.  The snake had climbed this tree a good twenty to thirty feet  up to this perch that we were shooting up to.

I was as wide open as I could with my 70-300mm zoom at f/5.6.  It was enough to capture some detail while keeping the background nice and smoothly uniform.