Hello, was a little unsure if I was going to get approved haha. My name is Dee, I've just recently gotten into photography seriously with the purchase of a Nikon D90 back in december, its been on and off playing with it so I'm still very new and it shows. I currently have three lens, as 50mm, a 55-300mm and a Sigma 105mm macro.

I've been looking into purchasing a good flash as I currently just have the normal camera flash and use a set up with some basic household bulbs.

I've been spending the last few days browsing through a lot of the forum and realized this seems to be more cat and dog with a lot of wildlife and landscape so i'm not sure how well you guys will like my subjects but I figured I might as well post what I got and see what you guys think. I love feedback and would love to hear any comments, criticism and suggestions you guys might have for me!

All of these were taken with the Sigma macro lens, on a black bed sheets and three normal household bulbs, I just want to let you know what i'm working with to make it easier to possibly address problems.

Welcome, Dee! LOL, I am fine with snakes - well, not at a gut level. Are these all your pets?

Cheers and welcome to the forum.

James

Yup all mine, looking for some tip on how to capture them better, though I can see it mostly revolving around investing some money in my lights setup.

Thank you for the welcome can't wait to start learning!

I used to have a snake breeding business... so Im loving the photo shoot. If you have any questions about snake photography shoot me a PM and I can most likely help ya. I've even got a youtube vid on photographing squirmy baby snakes.

Ummmmm there is a cheaper way

here was my reptile studio



And I also used the SB600 flash on my Nikon D90. Depending on what I was photographing... I'd change out the bulbs. The 100w CFL's were too bright for the geckos... they would just close their eyes.

In that studio I got the following shots.










Now you can go high tech and use modeling lights with strobes, but I found that you can get very nice images without them. I do have a full set of modeling lights and strobes and I just keep them put up. No need in putting wear and tear on them when I can do nice work with a couple of CFL's and my SB600.

Great shots! I especially love the third one. The patterns are striking and very nice use of depth of field.

Great eye for design. I really like the 3rd one a lot! The 2nd and 7th are really nice too. The only thing I suggest is to learn as much as you can about lighting. Light is really what photography is all about. Without light, there would be no photography.
Read some books, take classes, but get good at lighting! Your images are nice, but with creative lighting techniques, your images will be amazing! They will have more punch and more emotional value.
Debbie

This is soo true. Without proper lighting my Ball Python shot wouldn't have been possible.