Ross McGibbon is a wildlife photographer who grew up in Australia's bushland and is now based in Perth in Australia. From a young age he was fascinated by reptiles and the natural world they live in. For a while he worked as a snake catcher and rescuer, then as a fireman and now he photographs snakes and other reptiles for a living. However he only captures images of animals in their natural habitat and does not take images of captive animals or those that have been relocated. He also does not photoshop his images. He hopes that his images of snakes will reduce the misunderstanding and fear that people have of them and then see them as the extraordinary animals they are, if he achieves this he feels his efforts will be well rewarded.
McGibbon captured this image of a Golden Tree Snake in Douglas – Daly, Northern Territory, Australia. The snake has no venom or fangs and is harmless to humans and is shown here in the golden-yellow colour variation but other are possible such as blue, green and black. The image was taken in the snakes’ natural habitat and was taken in close up. In the image, the snake has been captured flicking out its tongue into the air. The reason snakes do this is to pick up chemical particles present in the air or the ground. They then deposit these into their vomeronasa/ Jacobs Organ which is in the roof of their mouth and this is where they analyse the chemicals. Snakes tongues do not have any receptors to detect taste or smell but the fork in it allows them to collect information from two different areas at the one time. From analysing this they can form a gradient of the smell which helps them determine the direction it is coming from. This feature lets them smell in 3D and allows them to follow prey or to find mates.
What I particularly like about McGibbon's image is the beautiful quality and detail he has captured in the image of the area around the snakes head. You can see the individual scales and the texture of its skin looks smooth and silky. I can almost imagine reaching my hand out to feel its velvet-like texture. The photographer has used a narrow depth of field (low f-stop) to focus attention onto this part of the snake and blur the rest of its long body and the background. This makes the viewer focus in detail on the head of the snake. The snakes forked tongue is also a dominant feature in the image and this makes me think about how it is scenting the air. As this is taken in its natural environment it could be searching for prey or maybe just smelling the photographer. I also like the way the snake's eye does not detract from the focus on its tongue. Often because their eyes are so fascinating and beautiful to look at, it takes attention away from how they are really sensing their world. Snakes have quite poor eyesight and it is their extraordinary sense of smell that they rely on.
This image is of a south-western carpet python which McGibbon took in Perth, Western Australia. The snake is non-venomous but large snakes can give a painful bite, and they grow to about 2 meters in length. Their natural habitat is woodland, heathland with rocky outcrops. In this close up image of the snakes head the detail and quality of the image is excellent, this was probably achieved by using a macro lens. The snake is in the process of smelling the air to detect chemicals. Its forked tongue has been caught in the upward flick, compared with the previous snake image where it is in the downwards flick. Snakes can control the direction of the flick depending on whether they want to scent the air or the ground. I think the dark background and the more slit-like eyes on this snake make the image look more threatening. This is also achieved by the leopard-like pattern on its skin that would help it hide to sneak up on its prey. I definitely get the feeling that the snake smells its dinner in this image.
This is a macro close up image McGibbon took of a Pope’s pit viper which was taken in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand. This is a venomous species that is found native in northern India, SE Asia and Indonesia in woodland areas. It eats birds, frogs, lizards and rodents and being nocturnal hunts at night. Its venom is neurotoxic to humans. What I find so captivating about this image is the amazing detail that has been captured. You can see the snake’s individual scales and their irregular sizes, its vertical slit-like pupils in its eyes and also a lesser known feature called pit organs. These can be seen as two small white hollows located close to and between its eyes. They provide the snake with an extra unique sense that enables them to ‘see’ at night by detecting infrared radiation that comes from body heat and so allows them to hunt their prey at night. When I look at this image the snakes head is so much larger than I would expect to see in an image that I find it captivating. The detail and irregular size of the head scales and their arrangement of patterns can be seen clearly and the snakes orange eyes with vertical pupils I think looks threatening. I also find the way the snake is staring straight at me a bit intimidating as I know it has toxic venom that could harm me, and that the photographer was taking a great risk in capturing such a close up image. I can imagine it sensing the heat coming from my body and wait for it to defensively strike.
McGibbon's captured this image of a Green Python snake in the Iron Range National Park on the Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland Australia. It was published in National Geographic. The snakes start off their lives bright yellow then suddenly at around 6-12 months of age they change overnight to the green colour shown above. This helps camouflage them in the trees they spend most of their lives. The green colour helps hide them from predators as well as hunt for prey, small mammals and lizards. They are aided in this by the pit organs that can be seen in the image, these are the distinctive grooves in the front of the snake's face. Here the snake can detect the body heat coming from warm prey as they hunt in the dark and then better aim to capture them and hold onto them with their 2cm long rear-facing fangs. When I look at this image I can imagine the snake hunting in the dark then being distracted by the heat coming from me turning towards the source of heat and staring directly at me. Snakes have poor eyesight so they use taste and heat sensors to sense their environment so rather than seeing me the snake is sensing my temperature. The slight tilt in the head of the snake in the image makes it look less aggressive and more curious as if it is wondering what I am. It is beautiful close-up details like those captured in this image that feeds my fascination for such amazing animals and highlights to me how different the way they experience their world is from us. By seeing in the dark with heat and tasting chemical molecules in the air.
McGibbon's captured this image of a Northern spiny-tailed gecko in the Dampier peninsula Western Australia. It shows a close up macro image of the geckos head and neck with the image centred around one of its eyes. A narrow depth of field has been used to blur the rest of its body behind the head. This gecko species is primarily nocturnal and while adapted to living in trees it can be found in arid scrubland and spinifex areas. It has spines along its tail and above its eyes, which makes it look as if it has eyelashes. As with other geckos, it has no eyelids rather it cleans its eye by licking it with its tongue. The huge spherical eyes shown in the image suggest that they have remarkable eyesight. They do, it’s up to 350 times more sensitive than humans. They can see colour in dim moonlight while we can only see black and white in the same conditions. This is because they have a higher density of oversized cone cells in their retinas which are particularly sensitive to light in the blue/green wavelength range and they can even see into the UV range. They are also able to sharply focus on at least two different depths of fields at the same time. This makes them well adapted to hunting in at night in dim light, in colour, which was probably what the gecko in the image was doing when the photographer found him. I like the way the background has been composed to indicate that it is night, with the general dark colours and the blurring as if it is difficult to see any farther. Also by placing the geckos beautifully patterned eye in the centre of the frame this emphasises it and draws attention to it. The brown hue around the eye frames it and further focuses attention there, while the large eyes with their eyelash spines and the upturned smiley mouth make the gecko look friendly as if it’s happy to see you. This makes the image more personal and intimate as you gaze into its eye and imagine what and how it sees the world.
Influence and Summary
I really love McGibbon's close up macro images of snakes as I find them fascinating as they are so full of detail. I particularly like the way his images reveal the intricate structures in a snakes head and the sensory organs it has there, which would be difficult to see with the naked eye. This is partly what makes his images so captivating, as they reveal information that you cannot see clearly otherwise so allowing you to study them closely in detail. One of the features his images reveal is the snake's tongue flick which captures its forked tongue tasting chemicals in the air allowing it to smell in 3 D. The flick occurs so quickly and when you watch it, it just looks like a blur and you cannot see the two forks in its tongue. The images also reveal details of the snakes lesser known ability to detect thermal radiation. This they achieve using their sensory organs called pit organs which can be seen on a snake’s face either as two circular pits just below its eyes or as a row of distinctive grooves just above its mouth. Using these sensory organs the snake can detect infrared radiation that comes from body heat and this allows them to hunt their prey at night in the dark. Snakes poor eyesight means they rely more on the sensory information they receive from thermal radiation as well as that from scents and vibrations. By focusing on these distinctive features of the snake, their forked tongue flicks and their pit organs McGibbon highlights the sensory experience the snake is receiving. This is why I have been influenced by his images to capture close up macro images of snakes like his that focus on the particular sense organ providing the snake with the experience, which is its forked tongue or it pit organs.
This is a close up macro image I have taken of a female Ball Python snake coiled up in its hide. Its head is positioned centrally in the frame and it is pointing directly towards the camera as it can detect my presence there. When resting snakes feel safer when hidden from view and before they leave their hiding places they will check for the presence of danger to see if it is safe to come out. That is what the python is doing here using its ability to detect thermal radiation. To focus the image on this activity I have used a very narrow depth of field focused on the end of its nose to capture in sharp detail the snake's pit organs. These are the sensory organ a snake uses to detect thermal radiation coming from the bodies of warm animals. In the Ball python, these organs appear as a distinctive row of pits or grooves that curve around the snake’s snout just above its mouth. The narrow depth of field I have used will focus and direct the viewer’s attention onto the part of the image that I want them to concentrate on. The rest of the field of the image I have blurred to prevent it acting as a distraction. This distinctive sense enables snakes to detect prey animals in the dark and allows them to hunt at night. The detail in the close-up image would be difficult to see with the naked eye, particularly in a moving snake and highlights to me how different the way they experience the world is from us. The eye catching feature of the grill like row of pit organs focuses attention on their function as they look like an embedded row of solar panels waiting to capture the rays of heat. I have captured an image of the snake when it is about to exit its hide as this allows the exit hole to act as a frame for the snake and draws attention to it hiding there. It also serves as a barrier to highlight the safe interior the snake is hiding and resting in and separates this from the world outside where it is less safe and more vulnerable to predators. This, therefore, serves to connect the way the snake is emerging from the hide by projecting its snout out first with the sensory reason it is doing it, which is to determine if there are any other animals near from the heat they radiate. The way the snake is pointing its pit organs toward the camera will emphasise to the viewer that the snake is clearly detecting the heat coming from them and this will make them more aware of the heat that they emit and the ability of the snake to experience this sensation.
Influence and Summary
I really love McGibbon's close up macro images of snakes as I find them fascinating as they are so full of detail. I particularly like the way his images reveal the intricate structures in a snakes head and the sensory organs it has there, which would be difficult to see with the naked eye. This is partly what makes his images so captivating, as they reveal information that you cannot see clearly otherwise so allowing you to study them closely in detail. One of the features his images reveal is the snake's tongue flick which captures its forked tongue tasting chemicals in the air allowing it to smell in 3 D. The flick occurs so quickly and when you watch it, it just looks like a blur and you cannot see the two forks in its tongue. The images also reveal details of the snakes lesser known ability to detect thermal radiation. This they achieve using their sensory organs called pit organs which can be seen on a snake’s face either as two circular pits just below its eyes or as a row of distinctive grooves just above its mouth. Using these sensory organs the snake can detect infrared radiation that comes from body heat and this allows them to hunt their prey at night in the dark. Snakes poor eyesight means they rely more on the sensory information they receive from thermal radiation as well as that from scents and vibrations. By focusing on these distinctive features of the snake, their forked tongue flicks and their pit organs McGibbon highlights the sensory experience the snake is receiving. This is why I have been influenced by his images to capture close up macro images of snakes like his that focus on the particular sense organ providing the snake with the experience, which is its forked tongue or it pit organs.
This is a close up macro image I have taken of a female Ball Python snake coiled up in its hide. Its head is positioned centrally in the frame and it is pointing directly towards the camera as it can detect my presence there. When resting snakes feel safer when hidden from view and before they leave their hiding places they will check for the presence of danger to see if it is safe to come out. That is what the python is doing here using its ability to detect thermal radiation. To focus the image on this activity I have used a very narrow depth of field focused on the end of its nose to capture in sharp detail the snake's pit organs. These are the sensory organ a snake uses to detect thermal radiation coming from the bodies of warm animals. In the Ball python, these organs appear as a distinctive row of pits or grooves that curve around the snake’s snout just above its mouth. The narrow depth of field I have used will focus and direct the viewer’s attention onto the part of the image that I want them to concentrate on. The rest of the field of the image I have blurred to prevent it acting as a distraction. This distinctive sense enables snakes to detect prey animals in the dark and allows them to hunt at night. The detail in the close-up image would be difficult to see with the naked eye, particularly in a moving snake and highlights to me how different the way they experience the world is from us. The eye catching feature of the grill like row of pit organs focuses attention on their function as they look like an embedded row of solar panels waiting to capture the rays of heat. I have captured an image of the snake when it is about to exit its hide as this allows the exit hole to act as a frame for the snake and draws attention to it hiding there. It also serves as a barrier to highlight the safe interior the snake is hiding and resting in and separates this from the world outside where it is less safe and more vulnerable to predators. This, therefore, serves to connect the way the snake is emerging from the hide by projecting its snout out first with the sensory reason it is doing it, which is to determine if there are any other animals near from the heat they radiate. The way the snake is pointing its pit organs toward the camera will emphasise to the viewer that the snake is clearly detecting the heat coming from them and this will make them more aware of the heat that they emit and the ability of the snake to experience this sensation.
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