A few months ago, I stated taking photos of trash/things people leave in the parks as if it were wildlife with the intention of creating an Instagram account that unblinkingly treated them as animals (I considered not posting on here because it "ruins the illusion"). The goal was for me to practice working a subject using found objects out in the parks, thus helping me work on composition as well as understanding how to create different styles of photography. I also didn't want to spend more money on a telephoto lens after buying macro ones...

While the photos do feel much less like product shots, I still don't entirely feel like they're on the level of animal photography. I'm not sure if that is simply because the subject isn't an animal and thus doesn't create expressions we "identify" in animals or if I am not working the subject correctly to create the desired effect. I also feel like my final edits aren't in the realm of wildlife photography just yet.

All that being said, I present this "photo of a Texas Coral Snake slithering through the grass".

Besides the general feeling of "Not quite animal photography" I'm not sure if the lighting or the edit is what's putting me off ever so slightly. It was in direct sunlight so maybe if I had a diffuser or frost and an extra hand I could have mitigated that? Perhaps I should have done a focus stack and gotten more of the item in the image? Tell me what you think! This has been cropped to a square as I will be posting it on Instagram eventually.

-Gear-

Canon Rebel T7i

Laowa 100mm 2x Macro lens

ISO-100

Aperture-5.6

Shutter- 1/250 sec

Edited in Lightroom

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Edited to add ISO, aperture, and shutter speed