Photographing Rattlesnakes

While I don't suggest that you emulate this, I have taken many photos of rattlers in this manner. I preferred to get up close mainly because the camera I was using would lose quality if I zoomed in. This was noticeable on many of my first images. The more I zoomed the more grainy the photo would be. The camera I am using in this image is my old Kodak Z612. This was a 6 mp camera that did well in the right conditions. I had tried to shoot manual a few times with this camera, but it was a real pain to dial in the settings. For this reason, I stayed in auto for a long time. I didn't start shooting full manual until I bought my first DSLR. 

This is one of the photos that I took that day. Being up close to a rattlesnake is very dangerous and you can see I am well within striking distance. The only downside to this image is that it was shot in auto. Once I started to shoot in manual, I started becoming a snob when it came to people shooting in auto. Now however, I have changed my attitude towards the auto setting. On some occasions I will use it. 

There are times when getting the shot is more important that the camera settings. Take a street shot for example, the light changes so much that you are constantly changing your cameras settings. This slows you down a great deal and can cause you to miss the opportunity to capture a great image. In this case auto is not a bad thing. However, I still think you should learn your camera and get out of auto.  This will allow you to control the camera and it lets you decide how to take the photo. It is also a good idea to learn the other settings on your camera as well. On some occasions I will use the TV or time value or shutter priority setting. This allows you to control your shutter speed while the camera will control the rest. This is great for situations that the light is always changing. A good example of this is street photography. I will, at times use the AV setting as well. This is the aperture value or aperture priority, which allows you to control the aperture or F stop. I will use this mainly to control my depth of field in any given shot. I will get into this more in future blog posts.