Keeping it Simple

As a wildlife photographer and biologist, I am used to photographing animals in the wild, but for a recent project, I wanted to take the habitat out of the equation.  Armed with a simple acrylic white background and a friend’s snake… this is the result.

This is an Arizona mountain kingsnake, Lampropeltis pyromelana pyromelana, native to Mexico and Arizona.  It is a striking animal that really lends itself to a more abstract capture. This capture was made at ISO 400, 60 mm, f32 @ 1/250 using a Nikon D300 and the R1 macro flash units with an SB-800.

While some animals are easy to handle, it certainly helps to have someone wrangling while you can focus (literally) on composition and getting the shot. White infinity sweeps are a great tool for the studio and can also be used outside–but they are a pain to keep clean and dust-busting images in post-processing can be a bit of an ordeal.  Keep the sweep as clean as you can to save time later!