We killed a small rattlesnake during our walk yesterday evening. It was flattened against the concrete of the sidewalk, absorbing the radiating heat. I stuck a camera in its face and it did nothing but flick its tongue. Normally, that would be the extent of our interaction, but because it was in our neighborhood, on a path frequented by children and pets, I did the right thing and bashed its little head with a rock. Even a baby rattler is dangerous, and we’ve already had a child in the neighborhood bitten by one.
Here’s the snake in its pre-smushed condition.
But, that’s actually not the most interesting part of our walk. While we weren’t doing battle with venomous serpents, we were watching a beautiful thunderstorm developing over Stanton and Big Spring, 20-40 miles east of us. I took a series of photos of the storm cloud.
The last three photos were obviously taken after sunset as I attempted to capture some images of lightning. I set my camera to ISO 1600 (the maximum for my Canon Digital Rebel XT), turned on the motor drive, and took almost 100 photos over the course of a minute or two. These three were the best of the batch. The first two photos of lightning were actually successive frames, taken less than a second apart. The third one was taken 10 seconds later.
Discover more from The Fire Ant Gazette
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Ok so..I appreciate you smooshing him. But. Um. Yeah.
The sunset was gorgeous though.
We’re having a memorial service this evening. Wanna come?
Okay, first, don’t think for a minute that a series of beautiful thunderstorm/sunset photos is going to repair the damage caused by the first image! And second, I’m curious…how do you get close enough to smoosh his head with a rock without endangering your own life?
You’re not fooling me, Gwynne. I know you’re not intimidated by a snake photo, unlike you-know-who.
As far as getting close enough to drop a rock on his head, my first impulse was just to step on him, but I didn’t want to goosh up the sole of my sandal. He never coiled, and so there was no danger. Well, very little, anyway. 😉
We commented on that cloud several times last night. I hoped you were watching too. Yea!!! We have the best sky. And we’re lucky to have you to photograph.
Thanks
Sherry
Sherry, thanks. Judging by what I saw on my Twitter feed, most of Midland/Odessa was out photographing that cloud!