In spite of limited success with the “bring me a snake and I will give you two hundred baht” plan when travelling with Kevin; I decided to implement it in our village by offering the gardener the same bribe. He normally kills snakes on sight, so getting two hundred baht for not killing a snake must have seemed like easy money for him.
He duly knocked on the door today and presented me with a beautiful whip snake in a water bottle. Money changed hands and I examined the snake in the bottle; how to photograph it?
I rang Ian of Pattaydaze who has much experience with snakes and he suggested that it would bugger off at great speed once I let it out of the bottle; which was fine as a warning but not much use as advice. With his only suggestion to “read it some Scottish poetry to calm it” ringing in my ears; I decided to transfer the snake to a large glass jug and photograph it in there. Not ideal but I had no other ideas. But the snake had other ideas and it ejected itself at great speed through a tiny gap as soon as it was in the jug and headed off to a nearby bush. Two hundred baht for bugger all.
But then it appeared at the top of the bush, stuck up its head as if to say “stand on a stool and photograph me, you idiot”. So I did, and for the next half hour or so it just sat there and watched me, gliding slightly backwards if I got too close, and never once indicating it wanted revenge for the bottle incarceration incident.
A real privilege to spend time with such a fabulous creature; here are a few shots:
Comments 🔗
2014-11-05| wenthworth saysSo Philippe Starck finally got round to designing a snake.
2014-11-05| Kevin saysDoes this now mean you think “my” 200 Baht plan was a good one? Nice images by the way be nice to the little guy. Keep him sweet and away from the gardener who no doubt will sell you the same snake back.
2014-11-06| Matt saysWow! Beautiful shots of an incredible snake.
2014-11-06| Ray saysNot so sure about “a magnificent creature” as they scare me s***less but top drawer images.
2014-11-06| Mike saysJust by coincidence I read your story after this one : http://tastehitch.com/2014/11/05/when-a-cobra-strikes/ I’ll bet you won’t be trying to photograph his snake at his Bangkok moo-baan !
2014-11-06| Spike saysThanks for the link; his site is a good read.
2014-11-06| Spike saysIt’s a better plan than your “let’s turn left instead of right and see where we end up” initiative.
2014-11-06| Clive saysAmazing images. I wouldn’t normally be particularly interested in snakes as a photography subject, but by odd coincidence came across this on October 30th…
and I am still trying to decide if it’s natural or staged. I think the lighting strongly suggests that it hasn’t been photoshopped [but, then again, I know nothing]…
If you look closely the snake in this image does appear to be “a little worse for wear”, which might suggest authenticity. Or not.
You be the judge.
I think this image might be worthy of a caption competition… My suggestion would be:- “Never give up”…
2014-11-07| Monty saysWell, that didn’t do a lot of good…
2014-11-07| Spike saysYour link seems screwed Clive. While we are waiting for an amended version, here is another snake story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/11/04/woman-almost-eaten-python-her-toilet