Hi Susie,
Yes I knew about snake trophies and what they do with the various parts but was never never interested. However, my wife's uncle used to drive down annually from Colorado Springs, Colorado to sweeter, Texas where one of the largest rattlesnake hunts and shows took place. Often times he would buy all the snakes when it was all over. He had a buyer in Idaho for them. While I knew a lot of people involved in putting on the hunt and show, my interest was photography. For a number of years I belonged to what was called South Plains Photographic Society. That was just a long name for a camera club. We had forty or fifty members which four or five were retired professional photographers, A couple of photographers from Texas Tech University, and the restive us amateurs, some pretty advanced. We had a monthly photo con test. We all used slide film. I was getting so that i would win first place once in a while and almost every month got a first, or a second or a third place or an honorable mention which was pretty good with that many pretty good photographers.
My last snake photo came about one Saturday morning in route to a golf game with three of my customers. The golf course was situations in a canyon about forty miles from my house. I was way to early but had in mind driving into Floydada for breakfast before going out to the club. I was driving slow, my thoughts a thousand miles away, when i noticed a snake crawling across the highway. It looked like a rattler. I turned around and pulled and parked my car twenty-five feet or so from where the snake was crawling into the grass. The canyon walls were steep and i thought what a picture if I could capture a photo of a rattler striking at the camera or my hand with the canyon rim in the background. When I walked up in from of the snake he coiled. He was only about forty inches long but he had eight rattlers and the button. I found a small stick which was too short and too flimsy, and a small stone. I placed my camera on the stone and with the stick, I got the snake striking while I knelt beside him, ready to push off in case he struck at my knee instead of the stick. This is intense because you are juggling so many factors, trying to get the snake to strike down toward your camera, watching your left knee which is in pretty close proximity to the rattler, trying to balance your camera steady on this rock. Suddenly the snake struck, not at my stick my stick, he struck down below the stick at my hand which was holding the camera steady on a round rock, with one finger on the button to snap the picture when the moment was right. His strike caught me by surprise. I did press the button that takes the picture but either myself or the snake tumbled the camera. I had no idea if I had gotten a picture or not.
Oh, well, I thought, that's it. I'm fifteen miles to the closest town and I really didn't want to fool around and get myself snake bit. Besides I concluded, this is a two man job, and I had golf game to get to. As it turns out I got a picture, a close up of a rattlers head, mouth open, fangs extended, with one drop of venom hanging on his right fang. The canyon wall was nowhere to be seen. The snakes head and along his neck fazed into a brownish oblivion.
I stood up and said okay, Mr. Snake, you're free to move about the country. A voice behind me said, "Can I help you with your work?" and almost scared the dickens out of me. I didn't know anyone was with in fifteen miles of me.
This rancher had pulled up behind me, gotten out of his pickup and leaning against his hood had been watching me. I had not heard him at all. He said to me, "I believe you've got more nerve than I have." I replied, "Or I'm a bigger fool".
Back at the Tuesday night meeting of the Lubbock Camera Club, my photo of the Western Diamondback Rattler took first place. One judge asked if I had taken that photo at some zoo? When i told him where I had taken the picture, he said, Man, you are crazy.
Maybe I didn't use good judgement is all.
