HEY! You're in my territory! Get .....

[Matt K.]

Went to a tour of the "Writing on Stone" Provincial Park. Cleverly the provincial government has erected a fence around an area of cultural interest, so no more happy carvers can leave their name plastered over the old stories of the Blackfoot, which are depicted on the sandstone in this park. Being who I am I went ahead of the guide, who, to my surprise, carried a big stick with her. Once in a while she would tap this stick on the rocks. Had no clue what she was doing until I heard the rattle next to my right. She pulled me aside and asked me to back up a wee bit. Oh well ... ooooops ...... at least I got some shots away ...

This is a Prairie Rattlesnake, apparently quite a large one ....

[Michaelaw]

Nice catch Matt...That's a healthy lookin animal!

[theantiquetiger]

You shot it too wide. You should have got right down there, filled the frame with him. We want to see it close up!!!

[asnow]

You shot it too wide. You should have got right down there, filled the frame with him. We want to see it close up!!!

If it was me, I'm not sure Canon makes a lens long enough to take a picture of this guy. The Hubble telescope ... now that might be long enough.

[Runmonty]

I'm with asnow. I would be gone pretty quickly.

The shot really demonstrates the colour camouflage, and how you could easily miss them.

[Matt K.]

You shot it too wide. You should have got right down there, filled the frame with him. We want to see it close up!!!

I was gonna get on my belly ... then I realized I had no feet on my belly ... so running was then out of the question ... and all I had on my camera was the 17-70 ...so it had to do ....

[JAS_Photo]

Plenty close enough in my opinion. nice and sharp too!

[aubintbay]

Wow! You don't see too many shots like this out in the wild so to speak. Very nicely shot too!

[Matt K.]

Thanks all ... trouble with those bugger is that they really blend into their environment. I am going to "Red Rock Coulee" next weekend to test out my latest purchase (still shaking from the experience of sticking my credit card into the little "suck the money out of the account" device ....); maybe I can find another snake there, or a short horned lizard ....