On an evening out in Eastern New Mexico that was so windy that I could barely open the doors to my truck, I found a little prairie rattlesnake stretched out in the road. Perfectly flat against the warm surface in a place where few vehicles have any business, he was out of the bite of the wind. I was not, however, and I had a hell of a time collecting the thing to get a few shots out of the wind. Quite a bit of fuss for one viridis. Regardless, it was a target, and my first snake of the trip.
Crotalus viridis
Prairie Rattlesnake
Tags: Crotalus, eddy county, new mexico, prairie rattlesnake, viridis
Do you use a 400mm lens for super aggressive snakes such as this one?
This was with the same beat up 28-135 I usually carry around. They can be pretty nippy, but can be safely worked with for photos within just a few feet. Of course I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone