fresh shed close-up of my kingsnake

[EddieF]

Belle shed a couple days ago, then ate immediately after that so she's been hiding for a couple days. But last night she showed herself long enough for me to get some decent closeups.

I'm finding that with my digital camera, which is a pretty decent one, I'm starting to get better closeups by setting it on macro, but then zooming in and moving the camera farther away. That allows me to get a closer shot than not zooming but moving the camera closer, if that makes sense...

 

[tyflier]

Nice looking Florida king...looks like a high orange brooksi??

The macro setting on your camera is designed to allow close-range focusing. Your camera should be close to the subject for macro mode, and your manual will tell you the optiomum distance from lens to subject for proper focusing. Then you zoom in from there and get some reall tight, close shots...

 

[carolinacorn69]

Nice King!

 

[EddieF]

Thanks tyflier. I only have two snakes, Belle the brooksi is my first and my Kisatchie is the other. So I'm new at the snake thing. I don't know about high orange or het this or that, when people use those terms my eyes sort of glaze over and I go, 'ain't she perty??'

But she used to be more orange and black, the black faded quickly and she's a lot more yellow than she was as a baby. Here's a young picture of her next to a current one...

 

[diamondlil]

Gorgeous king!

 

[Nanci]

What a beautiful snake! Interesting color progression. I love Florida Kings. I love their teeny heads.

Nanci

 

[tyflier]

"High Orange" is just oin referance to the amount of orange in her coloration. She has a lot of it...at least more than "normal", thus the High Orange.

For referance, here's a picture of my brooksi. Now...mine is hypomelanistic(reduced black pigment), and is also suspected of being an intergrade with an Eastern king. But you can still see how subdued her orange is compared to yours. One when she was young, and one about a week ago:

 

[EddieF]

cool, thanks. What does 'het' mean? Someone told me once she looked like she was het lavender I think (I might be remembering that wrong). Thanks for the info.

 

[tyflier]

cool, thanks. What does 'het' mean? Someone told me once she looked like she was het lavender I think (I might be remembering that wrong). Thanks for the info.

"Het." is short for "heterozygous". Without giving a lecture on genetics it breaks down simply...

In order for a snake to display a recessive trait, that snake MUST possess TWO copies of the recessive gene. This state is known as "homozygous" or homo., for short.

If a snake only has one copy of the recessive gene, their "look" will be normal, or wildtype. Hoever, since they do possess one copy of the gene, this state is f\referred to "heterozygous" or het., for short.

Typically, "het" genes are not visually indentifiable, though some people claim that some genes are visible in a heterozygous state. Sometimes I agree...sometimes I don't.

FWIW...my girl, pictured above, is het. lavander albino. She doesn't look it, that I can tell. She is homo. hypomelanism, and you can see that in the amount of reduction of her black pigment, as compared to yours.

 

[EddieF]

Thanks, that was a very clear explanation of a very confusing topic!