Wintertime Turtle

Reptiles are my mainstay for photography, so it was a surprise seeing this common snapping turtle in my backyard on January 21st! These shots were taken on a cool sunny day at higher shutter speeds and no flash. All shots where taken with a EF-S 10-22mm wide angle zoom. I wanted to test out the wide angle on closeup work, so this was a great subject for a test shoot. The reflection off of the shell killed me on a bunch of my shots and these were the few that were decent. #2 is my favorite. Let me know what you think.

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Cool shots! It didn't look like he was a big fan of you touching its tail though. Turtles are just plain odd critters. It looks like a mix between a frog, a bulldog, and a garbage can lid.

I wanted a 'mouthshot' and it wasn't cooperating. The cool weather really made it sluggish. In warm weather, it would have been fiesty almost nonstop....just like I like'em

I ended up relocating it back near the ditch in my front yard to avoid any dog vs. snapping turtle issues in the backyard.

This certainly was a small one . Does it live in your backyard ? The first one i ever saw was about 50 yrs ago when i was really young . I caught it on a cane pole at a pond on my grandfathers land in east texas . The shell was the size of a basketball and the head the size of a baseball bat on the large end ! They will eat any and everything ! They can also bite off the end of your finger .

I would call this one average size for an adult common snapper found in roadside ditches. Really big ones don't last long once they start wandering out in road (either smashed or in soup). Snapping turtles are like squirrels in my neighborhood.

Once the warmer weather sticks and I can start spending more weekends in the swamp... then I should get some good pictures of some big guys.

Unlike the hard way, I thought he was grinning from you doing the, Massa navy tickle tickle. %\]

Nice shots! That's one mean looking turtle.