Snake.

[David A Sercel]

I ran across this while on a hike the other day.

David

 

[LaFoto]

A pity that its eye slipped out of focus, but it still is an impressive photo in so far as you went down to its level somewhat and it lifts its head to look up. Is this a dangerous or a harmless one, would you know?

 

[mentos_007]

I agree with LaFoto, the focus on its eye would add much to this one. But I'd be afraid of shooting something like this even if it was harmless

 

[David A Sercel]

I believe it is a cottonmouth, and it is poisonous. I wasn’t very close to it though – I was abut 30 feet away using quite a bit of zoom.

 

[Big Mike]

I was going to say it looks like a corn or rat snake...which would be completely harmless...but it's better to assume it's dangerous...especially if there are cottonmouths in that area.

What lens did you use? Is this image cropped?

 

[David A Sercel]

The lens is a 35-350mm zoom lens, and it is cropped a little.

 

[photographiti]

welcome to the forum!

 

[Canoncan]

I like the shot David and have posted a few snakes in the past. It's not easy to keep a moving snake in focus especially if you have a wide apeture. As well we have no poisonous snakes in our area, that said welcome to the forum. Look forward to more posts.