First Time Photographing Reptiles

After weeks of searching, I finally found reptiles!

On this cold, blustery winter afternoon, after a hectic day of Secret Santa shopping, I somehow found myself to be standing outside of a Pet Smart. I had never been inside a Pet Smart before, as I am the kind of person that doesn’t really have a soft spot for pets. Many times I have mentioned to my friends about my search for reptiles, and how I was planning on creating a blog dedicated to posting pictures of decorated lizards and snakes. Being the observant person he is, *Dill, a friend I had been shopping with, suggested we go inside and find a few of these reptiles for me to photograph.

*Dill Legweak and I have a very special relationship, he isn’t exactly my “friend”, but that kid that’s life, for some reason, simply intertwines with mine. We have the same friends, belong to the same clubs, volunteer at the same events and happen to participate in the same Secret Santas.

Now, you may think Dill is such a great person, remembering about my search, going in with me to Pet Smart, but you don’t know the whole story. You see, Dill Legweak is a gecko-enthusiast, and the proud owner of two award-winning geckos. Geckos are reptiles, and actually the kind of reptile that I really wanted to photograph for this project. But Dill wouldn’t let me use his geckoes. Because I would “break” them. With my huge, meaty hands. “Break them? You were going to touch these reptiles?” you ask. Another part of this project I have not mentioned yet, is that one of the main points of the picture taking was to actually “dress up” these reptiles, in scarves, vests and any other mini clothes I could find in my stash of Barbie outfits. But without accessible reptiles, that concept was thrown out of the window.

Anyway, since Dill told me I couldn’t photograph his pets, I had to find a source of reptiles to fill this blog. Pet stores were definitely and option (Dill would tell me every time I asked him about his geckoes), but most store-owners don’t want random teenagers coming in, taking pictures of their merchandise without making a purchase and then leaving. That was an assumption. It’s not like I went and actually asked a pet store owner.

Today was different, Pet Smart was right there. I had my camera in my pocket. It was cold outside and we had time to kill until our ride was ready to leave. Why not? The worst thing that could happen would be either an employee would ask us to stop or an animal would suddenly die.

To be honest, I didn’t like going into this picture-taking session with Dill, since he was the one making me resort to this type of reptile-photographing. I really wanted photos of reptiles I knew, not stranger reptiles. The blotchy cages at Pet Smart didn’t really add to the experience. The grime of the glass was emphasized on each picture I took. But I guess I had to make do, because I really wanted to write a post today.

-superb editing job I did to mask the dirtiness of the glass cage-

After snapping several dozen pictures without any questions, complaints or deaths, the trip was over. I had a camera full of blurry pictures of what looked like half-dead lizards, turtles and snakes. Since I couldn’t break through that glass and drape a scarf on one  of those stoic lizards, I had to resort to decorating their bodies on Paint.
So that’s it.
Enjoy the picture.


*All names have been changed to protect the reputations of the people mentioned

- After looking at this post, I realize that I have no passion whatsoever about reptiles. None at all. Good this I picked a generic name for this blog so I can now post about more of my photogenic friends (that aren't reptiles).