Eye to eye with an adder

  I was almost disappointed, until today. Whole weekend and not a single snake, not even a grass snake. Then finally under a pile of logs, an adder was basking in the midday sun. Even if people are afraid of snakes, it's so obvious that these reptiles fear us more. Made a couple of pics from distance, but of course when I got closer, it slithered under the logs. I didn't want to give up immediately and I'm not afraid of workout, so I grabbed the first log from the pile, moved it away, continued to the next and so on. Finally after a few logs, the tiny little viper was caught and moved to a place were it could be photographed. When we were done, we decided to move the poor photo model to a safer place, faraway in the forest. Why? People don't like snakes, and the venomous ones are real outlaws, so sooner or later this girl would be a dead snake, if we would've left her where we found her. Here's two head shots of her and some other interesting stuff I saw this weekend.

         

A short trip to Greece

  Had the chance to visit Greece for a few days. Our destination was the Halkidiki peninsula, and there the town of Ouranoupoli. Our main goal was nothing less than to relax and have a dip in the Mediterranean sea. Of course I packed all my camera gear with me as I was hoping to make a few images too. Sea is a good subject for photos as are the olive trees growing all over here and there, so I shot a few landscape images. Had cool little portrait session on the beach with a very atractive lady. And finally a few herp images. My coolest sightings for the trip was a juvenile eastern Montpelier snake, which despite saving its life, bit me. After three days searching I finally found an adult Caspian whip snake, with whom I had a nice photo shoot. And a big surprise was a European blind snake found under a rock. All in all, Greece is an awesome destination, and I wouldn't mind to go there some other time again.

     

In the rain

   Lately we've been trying to learn our dogs to travel by car. The benefits are obvious, it's nicer for the dogs with all those new smells and for me it means maybe a few more images into my portfolio, and of course it's always great to be together with the family and do stuff. On Monday we drove a bit out from the town, unleashed the beasts and started to walk. A Little flipping stones resulted in a nice small smooth snake, but mainly I shot landscapes. Suddenly it started to rain, but as fast as it started as fast it ended too, and finally the sun revealed it self in all its glory. One reminder I got, wast that always carry a towel of some kind with you. Very essential when the rain pours down and gets in to your lens.

Aesculapian Snake

  Even if snakes and other reptiles do need sun and warmth, it doesn't mean that they are all the time sun bathing. Actually during the hottest time of the day, they try to find shelter and shade, just to cool of a little. And I suppose it's a good idea to get away from the reach and sight of people who most likely wouldn't hesitate to kill one. Here's my first Aesculapian Snake for this year, and I hope to find a couple more of these beautiful reptiles.

Those brave ones

  Most of the time I'm usually photographing wildlife just by my self. There's so many people who just aren't interested in getting out there and getting their feet wet. Telling a person that I'm going to look for snakes is an other thing that usually makes people to stay at home, rather than taking a walk with me in the wild. Not that I wouldn't enjoy outdoors just by myself, with only my gear as company, but still, sometimes it's nice to have company, and every now and then there are some brave individuals who are interested to share my passion, not only for photography, but for reptiles too. Here's a couple of images of those brave ones...