Watch where you put your hands!

[mike_c]

A juvenile rattlesnake at White Pocket. This fellow did not move at all while a half dozen photographers bunched up close and stuck cameras in it's face.

[usonian]

1. This is why I got a Coolpix with a 3000mm. effective focal length.

I call it Mount Palomar.

Stay safe, everyone. No selfies on Glacier Point, either!

[mike_c]

2. Mount Palomar!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. This is a fabulous photo, my dear mike_c!

The rock as background is superb.

Now, if I were taking that photo I would be standing where you're standing, and using my 100--400mm lens!

Ya done good!

[mike_c]

6. thanks!

I was too pooped to back up, lol. That was an early night!

[twodogsbarking]

4. Nice snek mate.

[mike_c]

7. thanks!

[3Hotdogs]

5. I guess it was long, about 25 years ago. N.J., Delaware Water Gap. Our hero was hiking up Mt. Tammany

and he encounters a Timber Rattlesnake, sunning itself, minding it's own business.

Mr. Kodak wants a photo but the snakes head wasn't in the Sunlight. So, as the article in the paper read,
"I reached down to adjust the snake."

For his efforts, he spent two weeks in hospital.

[mike_c]

8. I hate it when that happens

[ShazzieB]

9. Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi! 😱

I'm probably one of the least ophidiophobic* people in the world, but that sent chills down even MY spine!

*Ophidiophobia = fear of snakes

[3Hotdogs]

10. Timbers are quite populous in N/W N.J. I've encountered several while hiking in that area, over the years.

On two separate occasions, I was within a couple of feet from two visible Rattlers.

They are not aggressive.

Here's where it gets better. A section of the Appalachian Trail runs through Sussex County, N.J. At the Sunrise Mountain ridge, there is a shelter. The trail is about two or three feet to the east of the shelter. About 10 feet to the east is a Timber Rattlesnake nest. Each year, a couple'a thousand people walk by that nest without incident.

[ShazzieB]

12. Yeah, just to be clear...

...it wasn't the snake itself that gave me chills, but the guy being stupid enough to think he could just "rearrange" a sleeping venomous snake as if it was a pile of unfolded laundry. Talk about a candidate for the Darwin award!

If he didn't know the snake was venomous, that was still extremely poor judgment. Every school child knows some snakes are venomous. What kind of idiot does not know that? And for that matter, what kind of idiot is stupid enough to think it's a good idea to disturb ANY sleeping wild animal?

Point being, it was that man's idiotically risky behavior that freaked me out. Needlessly risky behavior freaks me out in general. For example, I got freaked out at Yellowstone when I saw a couple of teenaged boys repeatedly getting off the boardwalk around one of ths geothermal features to take pics of each other, despite all the warning signs about how the ground was dangerously thin in places, and you wouldn't know you'd stepped on a weak spot until you were plunged into the scaldingly hot water that was just beneath the surface. People can and have died doing that, which is why the boardwalks are there. (Unfortunately, I was not able to find a ranger to report them to, grrr!)

Another example is people who fall off canyon rims or mountaintops while doing risky poses or even acrobatics for the sake of getting an impressive photo or video to post online. Seeing people unnecessarily do dangerously risky things just because they can really bothers me. I don't want to be forced to watch someone get bitten by a timber rattler or meet some other grisly fate that they could have easily avoided with a little common sense. I would be the first one to call or run for help in such a situation, but I would also resent being needlessly put in the position of having to do that!

[3Hotdogs]

13. Reminds me of another episode -- San Francisco, maybe 20 years ago. House sitting for friend.

The Sunday paper gets delivered and includes an article about a rattlesnake bite. (Alcohol was involved. Probably a lot of it.)

At a picnic with friends, another hero encounters a rattler. Being fearless, he picks it up, and holds it by the neck and middle, looking the snake directly into it's eyes Maybe even, he looked into the snakes's eyes and saw that his soul was good, like when Georgie Bush looked into Putin's eyes that time -

Anyways, the snake stuck out its tongue at our hero. To return the insult, our hero stuck out his tongue back at him, which was summarily bitten. His tongue swelled up and he suffocated.

A Darwin Award needs the awardee to have no descendants so I don't know if he was so awarded. However, an honorable mention was surely merited.

[Deuxcents]

11. I'm the same way..a snake is a snake and they put extreme fear in me..or respect but I know to stay away