The Snake Lady

Oh Boy Oh Boy! The assignment was to photograph the reptile curator at a local museum. The reptile is a Mountain Kingsnake,  a harmless snake to could be mistaken for the venomous Coral Snake, were it not for a simple rhyme well known in areas where the two might be encountered:

Red and black, venom lack,

Red and yellow, kill that fellow!

This was a rare opportunity to see this snake up close, as they are not commonly found in captivity. The snake has fascinated me ever since I saw a photograph of one in an encyclopedia when I was very young. This is the first one I've ever seen up close. While this photo was my personal favorite, it will not be included when the article is published. An explanation will be given after I talk about some technical details

1/45 second, F 5/6  ISO 400 

Setup: Since I would be in an enclosed area of the museum,  I didn't worry about overcoming enormous amounts of harsh daylight, so my equipment could be kept to a bare minimum. 

I entered the museum about 30 minutes before our scheduled session. I notified the front desk that I would be waiting by the King Snake enclosure, and that she should come in 30 minutes so I could complete my setup.. It took slightly longer than I hoped, and Michelle arrived in time to watch me spend a few more minutes making adjustments to my equipment.

This shot was made with a single speedlight using a Lumi Quest miniature softbox placed at camera left. Its small size allowed me to position it close to the window so there wouldn't be any "hot spot" reflections on the glass enclosure. Second, the enclosed nature of this miniature softbox allowed me to feather the edges to prevent overexposing the sign on the wall, camera left, nearest the flash. From my perspective, there would be three points of interest. First, there was the sign on the left identifying the terrarium's occupant. Second, I wanted to show the contents of the enclosure. And finally, there was Michelle herself,+ holding one of the museum's  "Animal  Ambassadors".

Cropped version of the submitted photo.

My editor saw the original photo, and suggested that she wanted to see a variation that was cropped tighter to Michelle. I wound up cropping the image to a square format, completely deleting the entire left third of the photo. I also suggested that she consider the photo from the top of the post. Her response was inciteful, and worth reading.

"If it were the SNAKE being interviewed, the top photo would be a no brainer. Its proximity to the camera makes it look alarmingly large, almost as big as she is, which makes it the main subject, overshadowing her. The photo is too much about the snake and, as you say, makes it LOOK much bigger than it really is. A reader who knows about snakes is going to read the caption identifying the type of snake and say..."WHAT??"

The picture below is, IMO, a better photo of Michelle, and puts the snake in the correct perspective. The lavender/lilac color of the snake enclosure frame is a nice "frame" for her and the color, which connects the frame and her shirt, will at least show up on line. Even in black and white the enclosure frame serves as a framing device. And, importantly, in the lower photo Michelle has a nice smile which underscores her delight in dealing with reptiles such as this fellow. This is the message of the interview text."

At that moment, I realized I had been so focused on getting the exposure right that I overlooked the subtle details in Michelle's expression. As a result, my favorite photo ended up being more about the snake than the person.

If the session had gone more smoothly, I probably would have paid more attention to the overall image. Instead, I was distracted by exposure issues with the single speedlight I was using. The problem was caused equally by my confusion while reading the LCD settings and by the flash controller's crowded, control button layout.. The solutions are twofold. First, I need to better label those speedlights. My problems assumed that my speedlight was in Group A, but in reality, it had been configured to respond as a Group C remote. My frantic output adjustments made at the controller level were being sent to the wrong flash, resulting in an anxious moment of "What's going on?" Ultimately I solved the problem by increasing the ISO, which effectively overexposed the terrarium in the background.

I may write more about that in a future post, but for now I'm creating a simple checklist to help prevent these issues next time. For the moment, I'll just sit and brood.