[VIDEO] Florida Python Trip

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technoendo
Posts: 112
Joined: December 13th, 2014, 5:27 pm

[VIDEO] Florida Python Trip

Post by technoendo »

A few of my friends had made it down to southern florida and have successfully found burmese pythons as I'm sure some of y'all in here have done too. I've been hearing about these big brutes in the national news for decades and I decided to seek them out too and see them with my own eyes. Rather than focus on the ecological disaster this is a more lighthearted soflo python tourism trip video. The python my wife and I found was not impressive in size, but I think its interesting that it wasn't difficult for an average amateur like myself who knows nothing of big snakes to fly across the country from Seattle to Miami, rent a car, go drive around for 6-7 hours for 2 days and turn up a python along with many other animal encounters. This was a good time!

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Porter
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Joined: March 19th, 2011, 7:43 pm

Re: [VIDEO] Florida Python Trip

Post by Porter »

Cool video and Awesome trip! You guys “lived it” out there ;) :) All the footage looks great and cool graphics. I really liked seeing the snapping turtle in the beginning, all the gator and fish in situs, The basking iguana in situ (wow, What artistically perfect well balanced interweaving of colors and shapes to come across) and the soft shell nipping the other in the bud :lol: Great footage! Best video yet :thumb: Awesome stuff dude
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technoendo
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Re: [VIDEO] Florida Python Trip

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Thank you Porter! Hah that ass-biting softshell turtle cracked me up too. I was in the right place at the right time with a 35-100mm zoom lens and a circular polarizing filter to cut reflections on the water surface. I also encountered a lot of wary turtles that wouldn't let me get anywhere near them.
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Porter
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Re: [VIDEO] Florida Python Trip

Post by Porter »

technoendo wrote: February 8th, 2020, 6:47 pm Thank you Porter! Hah that ass-biting softshell turtle cracked me up too. I was in the right place at the right time with a 35-100mm zoom lens and a circular polarizing filter to cut reflections on the water surface. I also encountered a lot of wary turtles that wouldn't let me get anywhere near them.
Hey, believe me… As someone who has sought out western pond turtles for in situ video and photography, it ain’t easy! Lol most of the time, turtles won’t let you get close. You have to come across that perfect situation where they are either distracted doing other things or you’ve got some kind of cover to sneak up on them. I was going after them with a 70 - 300mm and never got any anything as cool as that :)

There was one time I was hiking around Folsom/Latrobe area and I saw four or five large pond turtles all together basking on a creek bank. I spent the next 20 minutes sneaking up on them ducked down in the tall grass. I got some decent shots but as I got closer, they noticed me and all dove in. So I just posted right up on the creek bank and sat down Indian style. I waited at least a half an hour before they all, Inspected me from the water several times, and climbed back onto the other side of the creek and were somewhere in the range of 20-30 feet away. It was a cool experience because they were biting at each other and theer were both males and females. One large male kept chasing another one off the bank and into the water. But the backdrop to those photos was horribly ugly lol it looked really beautiful right up above them, pure Springtime pristine habitat, but where they were basking was just a muddy rooty slope. I ended up tossing all the photos. Lol but I got some pretty good shots of them Periscoping from the water.

:thumb: I actually just got my first polarize filter, for my iPhone. So I’m messing around with that for the first time. I’m curious to see how it will do in a natural light setting for scale reflections

But yeah, I totally believe that those are gifts given by mother nature. Those perfect situations. I think a lot of Herper’s take that for granted or maybe take a more egotistical standpoint on it. It’s really more of a blessing. I think I did for a while...
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