I've wondered this for years.

Watching the NGC program Africas Deadly Dozen.  It's about the poisonous snakes of Africa.

So my question is:  How do you guys get those shots?

NGC was showing some footage where it looked like the camera was about 1 foot off the ground, and following the snake - like the camera was about a foot behind the snakes head.


How do they do that without alerting the snake, and pissing it off?

Then there's all those old Walt Disney specials.

Thanks.

Lots of willing amateur photographers willing to sacrifice.  

HA!

Gotta wonder who pays their insurance.

Either a very long macro lens, or the camera is set on a robotic arm.

Quoted: Either a very long macro lens, or the camera is set on a robotic arm.

It is usually done with a wide angle lens on a boom arm. With todays smaller professional quality cameras it's not too hard. The hardest part is finding a cooperative subject. Plan on spending a lot of time in the field for a minute of footage.

Here's some pix my brother took out at Lake Texahoma
(reduced size due to popular request...)

I took this shot of a Mojave Green Rattle Snake with a 100-400 is lens.  It was at about 250mm at the time.  He was really pissed, but didn't feel threatened enough to strike.

The small size really screws with the detail, but you can see the "look in it's eye"...  



Eric A. Mayer  

Video is often a mix of live and staged footage.

a friends hawk!

Quoted: a friends hawk! img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/vedubin01/DSC_0538.jpg

Gordon?
It's the photographer that took that photo.
here is some more,
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/JAndersondigital/Fuckumup.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/JAndersondigital/DSC_6440a.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/JAndersondigital/takeoff.jpg

and more........
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/JAndersondigital/DSC_6508.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b375/JAndersondigital/DSC_0222web.jpg

That particular shot you were asking about sounds like it was shot with a steadicam or a pole cam (small camera on a long pole).  Lots of wildlife filmmaking these days is with habituated animals or a combination of natural history and staged shots.  It's also common to reverse engineer a shot from a "money shot" to the events that might have led up to it.  Heck, even Cousteau staged shots.  The general standard is "if it could happen in a natural setting" for staging a shot.  Natural history film budgets have shrunk so much that more is staged these days.  Also, while we are well aware that certain types of activities take place (finding a prey animal in another animals stomach), the odds of actually filming it live may be pretty slim.  It's even tougher with underwater subjects.  I stage things all the time, things like sea urchins breeding, feeding behavior, unusual types of things like time-lapse and territorial fighting.  These are common events but does it happen when you happen to be in a tidepool with a housed movie camera and a couple of thousand watts of lighting?  Hate to bust any balloons but most of us are on a schedule and a budget and it's a business as much as anything else is...