One photo a day challenge: Day 195.

I have been seeing more snakes in the yard lately. I always enjoy seeing all varieties of wildlife in our yard. Even the snakes.

Despite seeing more snakes in recent days I haven’t had any good opportunities to photograph any of the snakes recently.

Today I went outside thinking I would try to photograph some of the flowers I don’t get a chance to photograph. Particularly the dark colored flowers that I more difficult to photograph in the evening.

I was walking through the recently planted flower garden. I wanted to see if any of the freshly planted flowers were in good position for photographs.

Then unexpected a snake slithered by. It was good sized. The snake slithered into the cluster of day lilies. I couldn’t see it anymore.

I took another step. And another snake began to move. This snake was moving more slowly. Moving more cautiously.

Looking at its eyes I could see they were opaque. The snakes eyes were no longer transparent because the snake was getting ready to shed its skin. Perhaps that is why it was moving so slowly. The snake could not see.

The snake moved around some, but never went far. As long as I tried to stay still the snake didn’t move much.

I was able to kneal down near the snake. The snake wasn’t bothered by my presence. I could lean in. There was time and space to create the compositions I liked.

It is not often I get opportunities to photograph a wild snake this close-up. I photographed the snake with my 60 mm macro lens. My aperture was set wide open for a shallow depth of field.