Capt Suresh Sharma

Snake Photography- a tough challenge and risky fun !

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

MISSION: SAVE INNOCENT SNAKES AND IGNORANT PEOPLE, WITH MY CAMERA

We all know that `an image is worth thousand words’! I say that a good image is worth million words! Isn’t it?

So, I decided to accomplish my mission by educating people about snakes and snakebite, basically to make them comfortable with the presence of snakes, through good quality photos. I strongly felt that good photos will project snakes as beautiful creatures and handsome, thus hoping that the hostile attitude of common man may get friendlier towards snakes after seeing their beauty through my photos. So far, I have been encouraged by the remarks and comments of the viewers of every quality snake image I have shown to public through my websites, blogs and others forums on internet.

I am sure, this endeavour will save the snakes from being misunderstood, as most dreaded animals. There are reports that in pre-independence India, British government promoted extermination of venomous snake species from certain areas, though it turned out to be a futile effort. This indicates how hostile we can be against innocent creatures, without even making an attempt to understand our neighbours, who cohabit this beautiful planet Earth. I do not blame the commoner squarely, as he struggles to muster for basics for his living. It’s the government agencies who have to organise the right type of educational material and effective strategy, which has had glaring failures in the field of `nature conservation education’ so far. For the will to do quality work is missing at all levels in the government department of wildlife.

My endeavour will be to bridge the gap between `INNOCENT SNAKES, IGNORANT PEOPLE’, through well written literature containing good information about snakes alongwith good quality images; common man needs it the most, to join hands to `SAVE OUR BEAUTIFUL PLANET’.

In fact, my interest in snake photography germinated out of necessity. About a decade ago, when I commissioned the Snake Cell at Chandigarh. I I felt that I need to produce literature, which could educate common man to understand snakes & snakebite. The first thing that came to my mind is a poster, which should have photos of the Big Four and some other snakes to make people comfortable with the looks of snakes. I also realised that this literature will not draw attention of majority of readers, unless its a high quality production. As I have mentioned in my first line itself that `an image is worth thousand words’, I further say that `high quality image which is esthetically done is worth million words’. At that point I was doing very basic photography and had NOT done any snake photos. So, I decided to take help of snake experts and snake photographers, whom I knew, to acquire snake photos for the purpose. At that stage, I underestimated own capabilities for snake photography, fearing that the images won’t come out to my expectations in quality, as a beginner. I tried by appealing almost to all snake experts whom I knew, I did not get any photos of quality from anyone. Though, I would like to mention here that Dr Indraneil Das, was more than willing, but he had signed a contract with few publishers for his books, so he could not contribute.

Finally, I said, “What the heck, why I can’t do photos of snakes, so what if I am poor at this stage, if I start now then one day I shall create good snake photos”. That was enough to motivate me. I started trying my hand with snake photography, while using rescued snakes, and as the time passed by, with practice I started getting reasonably good photos, ever since I have been improving. I am happy with the results.

Here, I would like to advise you to be careful about buying any camera equipment `on line’, especially the one you have not used before, one must refer existing users of equipment, first. I bought Canon macro lens 180mm L series and a 2x converter to compliment it, alongwith a Canon Ring Flash MR 14-EX. Soon, after some photography with snakes, I discovered that ring flash had no role in snake photography for me. Also, I realised that snake photography can be done with other lenses i.e. tele lens, wide angle lens, etc. Most people think that snake photography means macro lenses.

Now, I love doing snake photography, though I have a long way to go, before I can make my snake photos stunning for quality. I am dreaming to do some quality shots for the `snakes & snakebite poster’, which should be able to attract and stop any onlooker with its quality of images and get them read the text.

In the past, whenever I posted my snake photos on my Flickr account, I used to get mails from viewers, who were curious to know how to go about snake photography. And I was quite surprised that there wasn’t much on the subject on the net. Therefore, I decided to publish about this subject on the internet, in stead of writing individual mails. Be rest assured that I have explained all about snake photography on my own blog and websites, as much as I know, nothing has been hidden. I love to share my experiences and knowledge with everyone. So, this will be a sincere endeavour to disseminate knowledge about snakes through my Canon.

Snake photography is not at all difficult, provided you know the snakes well (like you are supposed to know your subject well, in any branch of good photography), one should have a competent snake handler for the snake shoot, follow the safety instructions, suitable camera equipment, etc.

Many Flickr viewers have commented on my snake photos there that I am gutsy, bold, brave and what not. I do not agree with all that. Fact remains, when you know about snakes well and about the consequences of snakebite, you are more scared and respect snakes more ! Its a matter of practice and knowing your subject, keeping in mind the safety.

Good discipline is the key to snake photography!

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