Creative photography

[rhinorick]

My first ever photos of a box turtle ... and it was in the wild.







[size=10](larger images linked)[/size]

It let me get really close before retreating into its shell.

[Mike54]

Nice captures Rick. The only turtles I've been able to get near to shoot like that are snappers and frankly they didn't like me being around. One actually had a hissy fit and snapped at the lens.  

[rhinorick]

Thanks Mike.

I got a shot of a large snapping turtle also, just the other day.  It is not a great photo, since the snapper was way out in the middle of a large pond, but here it is:

Ooops ... Sorry .. it is 500 pixels wide (over the 320 limit) so I deleted it from this post.  You can view it HERE.

He was a biggie!

[Mike54]

Good place for a big snapper, out in the middle of the pond. This guy was on shore. Very odd case, I was working around a small pond shooting damsels and dragons when I saw him, actually on the trunk of a downed tree. I figured some kids had killed him and just stuck him up there as I didn't figure he could have gotten there by himself. As I approached I certainly wasn't concerned but when he jumped off that tree trunk and ran into the grass I almost...

Well let's just say I could have embarrassed myself. They can move faster than you think.

Anyway I moved up cautiously (now) and was able to grab this before he hustled back into the water...

That was shot with the 100 mm macro and FTR, is full frame, no crop there.

[Deb]

You boys! Didn't your mothers ever warn you NOT to play with snapping turtles? You could lose a finger a toe or worse!  

Having said that, I do like your photos Mike and Rhinorick.  

[rhinorick]

No worries Deb!!  

And thanks.

My Dad picked one up by the tail years ago and it grabbed a horseshoe peg beside him and pulled it out of the ground.  My Dad had not been able to pull it out by hand!  



Great photo Mike!  You can tell it had been swimming with its nose sticking up out of the water.

They must be able to do some serious climbing.  We found one (the one I mentioned above) that had climbed up a fence that was up against a metal shed.  It had climbed up between the fence and shed nearly 3 or 4 feet when we found it!