Eye to Eye / Rattlesnake

Here’s the situation, late afternoon, early evening hike in slickrock country, about 6500‘ elevation, open land with sporadic ponderosa pines and patches of scrub oak. I found my subject, a rattlesnake, out in the open, and unobstructed. My objective was to fill my frame as much as possible, at the snake’s eye level. My lens choices were a 200mm f/2.8 with a minimal focus of 4.9’/1.5 meters or 400mm f/4.5 a minimal focus at 12’/4 meters. I knew neither of these lenses was going to fill the frame even at their minimal focusing distance. I never really considered the 200mm. I wasn’t about to laid down at eye level with a venomous snake any closer than I had to. Fortunately, I knew I had a piece of gear attached to my 50mm macro lens, a 25mm extension tube. Extension tubes are hollow plastic tubes with mounting brackets on each end. The tube mounts between a lens and camera body, enabling the lens to exceed its minimal focusing distance. I’ve had success with this trick before with my 400mm lens. I setup my rig and proceeded to get down in front of the snake at eye level. The one thing I didn’t expect as I looked through the viewfinder. This triggered some primal nerve, a subconscious fear of snakes or more precisely a venomous one. I’d never experienced this kind of fear before. But I’d never laid in front of a snake equipped with fangs before either. I brought the snake in to focus, but it wasn’t filling the frame yet. But you might say I knew I had the wiggle room I would need. Once I worked up my nerve I began moving closer, over the already cooling sand and pine tree litter. The extension tube gave me about 1 to 1 1/2 meters or about 5 feet closer than the lens’ minimal focusing distance. Upon framing the image I wanted. I watch and waited hoping for at least to see the snake’s forked tongue. I waited and my subject waited I made an exposure here and there. The light almost gone I slowly rose and back off a little. With my movement the snake backed off, too. The standoff came to a draw I guess. I got a few decent images. The snake … well I guess it didn’t get ate or stepped on.