How to Get Bitten by a Black Mamba

Southeast Asia’s beautiful pit viper (Trimeresurus venustus)

Photographer Mark Laita has a spectacularly beautiful book of snake photographs, Serpentine, coming out soon.   His style of taking the animal out of its environment and into a photographic set allows us to savor the textures and colors of these beautiful creatures.

Here’s what Wired has to say:

“My intention was to explore color, shape and movement, using snakes as a subject, but of course herpetologists will probably enjoy these photographs as well,” says Laita, a Los Angeles photographer known for his stunning studio compositions.

During the making of Serpentine, Laita visited dozens of locations in the U.S. and Central America essentially exporting his studio to zoos, venom labs and to the home and workplaces of breeders and collectors.

“I shot everything from the most venomous — an Inland Taipan — to a harmless garter snake,” says Laita. “As for the most dangerous, though, I would think a king cobra is the most capable of doing serious harm to a human. Very big, fast and angry.”

But along the way, Laita also managed to get bitten by a black mamba, a highly venomous African species.   Apparently, he managed to survive.  But check out the photo, which tells you something about studio photographers:  Is this really how you want to dress  when working close up with a black mamba?

The model (a black mamba) gets snappish with the photographer