Of all the small creatures you might encounter up close in the forest, snakes are among the most difficult to photograph. These creatures, when they come across you right underfoot, are more likely to provoke a defensive reaction and a strong desire to get away from them. At the same time, they usually don't want a close encounter and quickly slither away. We’ve encountered various snakes, including venomous ones, but it's fair to say that such encounters are rare and considered a great success. While observing precautions and maintaining a healthy respect for these fascinating, sometimes deadly creatures I’ve still managed to capture a few on camera.

Our first encounter with Pseudoxenodon macrops was near the river. It was an adult snake, in no hurry to retreat from the path, where it had settled among the roots. Creatures like this, which possess various forms of mimicry, rarely flee when they encounter humans, because after all, why would they need all that evolutionary adaptation? The large-eyed bamboo snake, also known as the false or "fake" cobra, is venomous to its prey — small lizards and frogs, but it poses no danger to larger creatures, such as humans. I was aware of this information at the time, but I had no desire to test it firsthand. Standing about one and a half meters behind the reptile, we watched as it slightly expanded the area around its neck. We didn’t observe a full "cobra" mimicry stance and, careful not to disturb the snake, I was able to take a photograph. In a drier season, in the same area but nearly at the top of a hill overgrown with mountain bamboo, Pinus dalatensis, and broadleaf trees, we encountered a tiny snake — a baby Pseudoxenodon macrops. Like the previous snake, it was olive-green and unusually curious. Big-eyed and seemingly cute, it showed no signs of aggression and, instead, posed and allowed us to examine it up close, becoming a model for this painting.