Cottonmouth

Yeah that a bite me shot!

I'd have done exactly the same thing in the same situation. It's a great shot showing exactly where the Cottonmouth gets its name from.

Jason

Great capture and great colors along with a steady hand. There should be a small sign in the viewfinder that reads "Objects in the viewfinder may be closer than they appear.". Down here in Georgia I call them Cotton-Mouth-Water-Rattlers!

Braver than I. Very nice shot. I HATE those darn things and you're a better person than I am...I would have introduced it to a .20ga shotgun.

Great shot!

Now if you could have got more on its level...lay down and get really close to where it was looking down on you.....man what a shot!....Lol jk...very brave shot.

Great shot, a bit blue maybe. It scares me a little, to be honest

So impressive, congrats

Thanks everyone for the kind words. As an ex South African I am quite familiar with dangerous snakes however this one just about bit me as I stepped out onto my patio . From what I have read Cottonmouths can be quite aggressive and very territorial so I was very surprised to see it so close to my house.
Someone mentioned the color being a little blue and that was my 1st thought as well though I checked and re-checked the image colors, and each time came up with the same color, maybe I should just warm it up as that is what it feels to me that it needs.
As actual images go this is not a stellar image but it does tell a very strong story which is what makes it interesting imo.

Again thanks for all of the comments

the blue you see appears to be almost all reflected light, Im guessing it was a clear blue sky day of the photo? I have run into the problem photographing herps that the scales on reptiles and wet skin of amphibians will reflect the surroundings. I have use polarized filters to help in some situations. still a good photo either way, you might try to play with shadows and brightness in editing, or adjust the blue out in selective color editing.

I hope you don't mind, but I had to see how that worked, here is the results I came up with.

I dont mind however your work has a similar result to my efforts in that the bark is now unnaturally red.