Rate this cave rat picture:) Please

What do you all think of this picture. Reptile Top Sites has a photo thing and this one is rating low. I didn't think if was fair

I think it's a fine picture for the purpose it was taken. However, as far as photographic quality goes, I'd rate it low as well.
The reason is the photo is just not presented in such a way as to be judged. Generally speaking, anytime a hand is in the picture restraining the subject it detracts from the picture quality.

Even though the picture is in nice focus and has good color saturation, it just doesn't jump out as a great picture.
The snake is a beautiful animal, but its beauty is detracted from by the presentation.
The same snake in a natural pose, in a naturalistic setting would rate much higher. Naturalistic, meaning looking like the snake's habitat, not just something made up of natural things.

I'm don't have alot of photographic knowledge, but I tend to catagorize pictures in one of three catagories. There are the poor quality pictures that have obvious flaws, focus etc. The middle grade pictures are what you normally see in ads, and such places. They look good, but are primarily just to show the animal, not showcase it. The majority of pictures, including this one, fall into this catagory.
Then there's the excellent pictures. These are done to showcase the animal. They take into consideration the pose, the background, and the focal points.

Well, I tried to get the snake to susspend herself in the air and open her mouth but for whatever reason gravity was getting in the way of what I wanted to do.

I agree with you 100%! I hate hands in photos unless they say something about the picture. In this case I was just cleaning the snakes cage and she coiled me. After cleaning the cage with one hand my wife was laughing at my hand turning blue so she wanted to take the picture. If you note, that is the fisrt and only picture ANYBODY will find with my hand in it as that's something I hate as well.

I'll include another just to show you I'm on the same page as you. Most of my pictures are taken in my house and even so you can't tell by looking at them. The picture I'm including is no exception. I bet you wouldn't have guessed this snake was in a cage.

Adam Block

<IMG SRC="http://www.angelfire.com/nv/impactreptiles/grndsnk11.jpg" BORDER="0" ALIGN="center" WIDTH="557" HEIGHT="445">

I've seen other pictures you have posted, and you do take nice pictures.
The one of the striped ghost corn in the cornsnake section is a good candidate for a contest. The background looks good, the snake is in a more natural pose, and the head is near one of the natural focal points of the picture.

The picture of the gray band you posted is nice as well, but in that instance the background betrayed the photo. While is was naturalistic, it wasn't a setting in which you would find a gray band normally. A beautiful snake in a nice pose, but the scenery draws one's attention as being out of place.

The one you just posted above looks natural, and is a good photo. I would rank it alot higher if more of the snake were visible. However this not being a contest I can appreciate it as a nice picture of a not so commonly kept snake.

I am hoping to set up some photographic "sets" which I can use to take better photos myself. I normally take a picture on a solid background because it's quicker, and yeilds a better picture than putting the snake on the bedspread.
I'd much rather have some natural photo boxes set up to resemble different habitats.
That's on the list though, photographic skills has never been my strong points but it's something I've always wanted to be better at.

Well, I too would have liked more of the snake in the picture but sometimes they don't do what you ask and that guy was no different. Keeping a that snake was some what of an effort and while I wouldn't go as far as to say hard I kept it with 1.7 banded geckos and a pair of banded sand snakes. All did well for over a year so I felt it was not only a success but a great tank to keep and watch.

As for the backgrounds. You're 100% correct about the alterna. I had one backdrop set up that I liked and used for many (well, one) years. I of course could have set up many different backdrops for the different snakes I kept but that was all together too hard and I'm too picky to find many I like. I even wanted to set some up to look like a farm with hay and come up with some seasonal themes. Never of course went anyplace with that.

I'll post one of another not so often seen snake in the other snakes forum just to draw a crowd.

Adam Block

well, I can't say I know anything at all about photography (I understand point and click....thats it)

But I really liked the first photo much better than the second. I understand that the hand in the photo is what y'all think is a draw back, but I actually thought it added to it..........the ambiguity of the unexplained hand encourages the viewer to create a story line to go with the photo, unlike the second photo, which in my opinion is just a nice photo of a cactus that happens to have a snake in the photo.........

Or..........

Or I did Home Day Care for too many years and need to learn to relate to adults and stop making up stories to go with all the "Pretty Pictures" I see!

Both are nice photo's.

I still like the first better!

Cheryl, I agree I have 3 kids and find myself making up a story for everything.

That one was taken out of the cage for cleaning and I just throught it coiled me nice so I took the photo. Maybe my wife did I don't remember, she must have.

The second was in a 60 gal in my kitchen