So what we're going to try to do here is
photograph our eight-foot 30 poundish
Villa constrictor.
Let me ask you a question, can it bite?
And you guys don't seem to have any
concern about the biting. No, this is
generally safe, this snake is used to people.
So cold... Yeah? You calming the energy and...
the goal I have is to take a couple
different shots. One of them is going to
be a really clear shot that shows a lot
of detail of the entire body. That might
be a little tough on this background,
that he's already a little wider than. So
what we're trying to do...
is it is a team effort...
Get them all curled up... shoot top down
get a 24-70mm on this, with a really
extended field of focus. Probably
something like an f/16 and. and that's
going to, you know, lose us a lot of light so...
we're going to turn these lights up. if
you could hold this light up, and tilt it
down overhead. One thing I'm keeping in mind..
Soon as you remove the blue towel, the
subject is going to be a lot darker, and so I
need a bit overexposed for this
situation, so that in a second it goes
away. The exposure will be spot-on. For
the dark subject. 1, 2, 3 go...
I think we got him, right away. I really
do.. yes we did!
The other one is going to be a shot very
close-up. I would love to have that
tongue in profile, and straight on. I've done a
macro so it looks really close.. lol....
it's a 105mm, so getting that tongue..
it's perfect!
Hey see if we can't lift here, wow you
are so.... is it close to me like I'll show
you this shot I have, and you'll see why
it's nerve-racking to me. So this is what
I'm seeing. This is how close it looks to me.
And lastly would be a top-down shot to
see if we can't get something that
really shows that length. So this is a
great angle, because he's in focus. His
body's curled around. This angle is so, so
cool. Carton, can you make this light come
a little bit more here, because he's just
head-on.
It's very layered and nuanced. Kind of
looks like he's just completely staring
at me, and I think he's going to make that
hissing sound again. I said lastly, and
lastly, lastly, would be to do a macro of
that beautiful iridescent of his back.
We're going to light it in a way that
really helps that pop out. The more I
turn this light up, and bring it in the
more iridescence is shown off, so I
really want to pull some light in here.
Not too much, bring it down just a little
bit. So yeah... you don't want to like, put
so much light on, that you get rid of the
shadows. Which is where the folds show
off that iridescent. Gosh this is just...wow...
muscle. Oh look at that underside, that's
a whole different look.
So this iridescent that keeps showing up
in just different angles. It's crazy, it
looks like an oil slick now. You might
get a lot of iridescence, and yeah, yeah,
so pretty, and it's a certain angle, and
gets to the light. That is really
stunning, and also the angle I take to
the snake makes a huge difference. That
is lovely, so we had a wonderful shoot
with a giant snake, and got all the shots
I was going for. We got that beautiful
iridescence, that really was highlighted
by the way we shifted the light. We had
the beautiful top-down shots that was
not easy to get. We had to really get it
quickly, and trying to get that circular
shape, was about a millisecond between
when he let go of the snake, and after he
moved. So shooting a very fast shutter
speed, and the tongue, we got the tongue
out, and fully extended! And had that
lovely depth of field where the tongue
was sharp and the face was kind of going
out of focus, and lastly was trying to
get a sense of the size of the creature.
So all in all, went really well. Ended up
using a combination of the macro, the 105-8mm macro
lens the and the 24-70 f/28 lens. For this
scenario. I only needed
those two lenses to get
exactly what I wanted