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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Need Help Creating A Photo Station (for animals) | |
Forget about building a plexiglass enclosure for the critters ... build one for yourself.
With a shoot-through for your lens.
Here's a trick I learned from some Thailand snake handlers many years ago. They place the Cobra's and Asp's in a bag on the concrete floor while the kick boxing matches are taking place. I was trying to get a good position for a boxing match shot and literally stepped on this bag and "kicked it around" a bit to get my footing where I wanted it ... my foot literally standing on the bag with it full of snakes.
Image my surprise when they brought the bag up on the canvas and opened it to reveal about a dozen or so Cobra's and Asp's.
Well, after getting face to face with a Cobra and having kicked them around, I talked with the handlers about why in the world would they leave a bag of venomous snakes just lying around like that.
They told me that the concrete floor sucks the heat out of them so much that it slows them down, which gives the snake handler a much faster reaction time than that of the cold snakes who move pretty slowly compared to what they are actually capable of.
Now, of course ... you're dealing with something that your Zoo Professional is going to lead you on more so than some cyber-chat idea. But, that being said, I'd look to employ some "snakes don't like cold" strategy to keep them from moving too rapidly either for photgraphic purposes or as a barrier to retard them from moving toward you.
Again, your zoo professional will have more input to this, but I might ask about the possibility of heating rocks (oven warmed, buried element, heat lamp, etc.) that you want them to move toward and cooling (fridge, water jacket) those that you want them to stay away from (i.e. near the front, or ), etc. How elaborate you want to get with the hot / cold thing is variable ... but it might be something that you can also use to help control your posing zones.
Mostly brainstorming ... as I've not done it. But having literally felt the non-responsiveness of those "pre-chilled" snakes and seen their retarded movements during the show ... just something I thought I'd share. I figure a cold snake set near a warm rock ... he might just prefer to stay in that area for a bit.
GL ... HTH
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