Hermit

Elaphe climacophora
Japanese rat sanke
青大将(アオダイショウ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D MK III*

このアオダイショウの幼蛇は、この写真を撮った前日に捕まえていた。その場でリリースしたのだが、また同じところに出てきていないかなと探していたら電柱に絡んだチューブの陰に潜んでいた。
I caught juvenile of this Japanese ratsnake on the day before when I took this photograph. I released him on the spot. When “he did not come out to the same place again”, I looked for him. He lay hidden behind the tube which coiled itself round the utility pole.

丸一日以上、ここに潜んでいたのね…。ごめんね。
Did you lay hidden in here more than full one day. I’m sorry.

Elaphe climacophora
Japanese rat sanke
青大将(アオダイショウ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D MK III*

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これが前日の写真。
This is a photograph taken the day before.

人通りも多いところなので、出てこれなかったのかも。もう一度捕まえて、少し離れたところにリリースしました。
Because here was a place with much pedestrian traffic, was not he able to appear? I caught him once again and it was a little distant and released him.

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Interesting thing

Elaphe quadrivirgata
Japanese four-lined ratsnake
縞蛇(シマヘビ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D MK III*

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オスとオスです。コンバットダンスの1シーン。
Both of these are males. One scene of combat dance.

見た目には、血湧き肉躍るような闘いではない。
何を争っているのかと。
それでどう優劣がつくのかと笑いたくもなる。
It is not a fight intense visually. What do you compete for? Thus how does the superiority and inferiority arrive? We want to laugh so.

しかしそれは人間の主観であって、シマヘビ達には関係ない。
シマヘビには意味のあることで価値のある行動なのです。
However, it is man’s subjectivity, and it is unrelated to them. It is an action to be worthy in significant to them.

自分の理解の外にある行動を鼻で笑うことは、自身の進歩を止めてしまうかもしれない。
奇妙な行動や面白いものを見た時は、笑って済ますだけでなく
そのことに関心を持って接する方が楽しい。
Laughing at the action that is besides my understanding by the nose might stop own advancement. When a strange action and the interesting one are seen, touching being interested in that is happy. It is a shame only that laughing without any other doing.

※このシマヘビはジャパンスネークセンターの野外放牧個体で、野生個体ではありません。

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Complex color

Elaphe climacophora
Japanese ratsnake
青大将(アオダイショウ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D MK III*

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アオダイショウは何色?緑、青、茶、黄緑、ライトグリーン、エメラルド、スカイブルー。
Do you know the color of Japanese ratsnake?
Green, Blue, Brown, Yellow green, Light green, Emerald, Sky blue.

アオダイショウは一色でのイメージが強い。
We express the snake by one color in many cases.

でも、本当はこんなに複雑。鱗は白、鈍色、茶、黒。
But, they actually have a complex color so much. Scales are white, silver, brown and black.

鱗単位では、これほど複雑な色彩を持つヘビなんです。
It is a snake that has a color complex like this for the unit of the scale.

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Miraculous

Elaphe quadrivirgata
Japanese Four-lined Rat snake
縞蛇(シマヘビ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS KISS DIGITAL*

気付かれていない。奇跡だ!
I am not noticed by him. It is miraculous!

今までずっと蛇を追っているけど、相手に悟られず撮れた写真は2枚だけ。
I take the photograph of the snake in all this while. But only two pieces of photographs which came out without it being realized.

Baikada’s main website
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Oxalis

ジムグリは地味。
カタバミに完全に負けた。
Japanese forest rat snake is sober.
He is soberer according to the existence of the oxalis.

Euprepiophis conspicillata
(Elaphe conspicillata)

Japanese forest rat sanke
地潜(ジムグリ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D Mark III*

ジムグリは地味。カタバミに完全に負けた。
Japanese forest rat snake is sober. He is soberer according to the existence of the oxalis.

ジムグリは背景に溶け込み、その身を守る。カタバミは目立ち、虫に花粉を運んでほしい。目的が全く逆なのだから、当たり前といえば当たり前だ。
Japanese forest rat snake protects the body by assimilating into the background. The oxalis attracts the insect’s attention remarkably and wants the pollen to progress. Their purposes are quite different.

ジムグリは、小さく毒もない。目立たずに、生きていければそれでいい。
Japanese forest rat snake is small and not have venoms. It is good if he can make a living without being conspicuous.

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Chaos

Dinodon rufozonatum rufozonatum
Red banded odd-tooth snake
赤斑(アカマダラ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS Kiss DX*

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鮮やかな赤とシャープな黒の斑が入った、アカマダラ。
他に色彩を置かない場所で観察するとこの上なく美しい。
This snake has variegattions “bright red” and “sharp black”. It is the most beautiful when I observe it at the place where it does not put a color else.

しかし赤茶色の土、枯れた葉、漆黒の闇にまぎれると
その色彩は非常に混沌としたものになる。
However, the color becomes very chaotic when diverted to the dark of a soil of red brown, a withering leaf, and the lacquer black.

美麗なのに混沌。
Sense of values is such a thing. It is not necessary to persist so much.

2009年というこの1年、はたしてよい年になるだろうか。
同じ1年を迎えても、人によっては良い年であり、人によっては悪い年。
Does 2009 year become a good year? Everyone will spend different year of 2009 and no one knows it’ll a good year, not. It depends on each individual person.

混沌とした先の見えない1年のレースは今始まったばかりだ。
年始に良年を願っても、年末まで願い続けなければ
いつかは混沌にのみ込まれてしまうかもしれない。
Chaotic one year just started now. Even if you pray the beginning of the year for “Good year”, as for you, it may be crowded only in chaos someday… You had better always pray.

Baikada’s main website
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Arrow

Elaphe climacophora
Japanese rat sanke
青大将(アオダイショウ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D Mark III*

頭が矢印。舌も矢印。私の感じた第二印象。
The head is an arrow. The tongue is an arrow. Second impression that I felt.

頭の奥ゆかしいグラデーションのある灰青色。私の感じた第一印象。
The ash blue with graceful gradation of the head. The first impression that I felt.

君はきっと美しい色のアオダイショウになると思う。あくまで、人間から見た「美しい」だけれども。
I think that you become a surely beautiful color Japanese Rat Snake. Though it is “It is beautiful” seen from human.

Baikada’s main website
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Style

Elaphe quadrivirgata
Japanese four-lined ratsnake
縞蛇(シマヘビ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D Mark III*

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自身の考えを貫き通すこと。
努力、根性、誠実。
To keep own idea to the last minute. Effort, spirit, and sincerity.

いわゆる美徳とされた、日本人の価値観。
しかし、時代は流れる。
The Japanese regarded these as virtue. However, the times go by.

今の自分の自身の考え。
貫き通そうと思う自分の考え。
それは「時代に合わせて自分の考えを変えること」
刻々と変わる蛇の姿勢のように。
The thought of present own of me. My thought to keep to be able to continue. It is “changing my thought according to a time.” Like the posture of a snake changing every moment.

矛盾するけれど、これ、意外と大切なのではないだろうか。
I think that this is unexpectedly important though it contradicts.

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Baikada’s main website
Wild Home

Spark

Elaphe quadrivirgata
Japanese four-lined ratsnake
縞蛇(シマヘビ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS 1D Mark III*

ヘビで太陽をバックにした逆光写真も撮ってみたいと思っていた。きっとチャンスはこれからもあると思うのだけど、日本の昼ヘビは地べたにいる事が多いので太陽バックの写真は難しい。
I thought that I wanted to take it of the backlight photograph of the snake that backed the sun. Hereafter, I will surely have the chance. However, it is difficult for me to take the photograph of the snake that backs the sun because there are a lot of the snake that acts in the daytime of Japan on ground.

コンクリ地面からの照り返しでの逆光写真は面白みを感じないのだけど、濡れた地面は反射が均一じゃないから面白いです。撮る人間はドロドロになりますが。
I do not feel interest in the backlight photograph of the reflection from concrete ground. However, it is interesting in me because wet ground doesn’t reflect uniform light. Though man who takes the photograph becomes muddy.

跳ね水が逆光を受けて、火花のように散っていました。
Splash water caught the backlight and was scattered like a spark.

Baikada’s main website
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General

Elaphe climacophora
Japanese rat snake
青大将(アオダイショウ)

Photograph by Baikada (ばいかだ)
*CANON EOS KISS DX*

ヘビはそのほとんどが、私が近づくと逃げていきます。
When I approach, the most sanke escape.

ところが時々、アオダイショウでは「でん」と構えて動かないやつもいます。
However, there is sometimes an individual from which it doesn’t run away either in Japanese ratsnake.

アオダイショウの「大将」は、大きなヘビという意味合いもあると思うのだが、こうした堂々とした態度も「大将」なのかもしれない。
Japanese ratsnake is called “Ao daisyo” in Japanese. “Ao” means blue or green. When I am called by one word, “Daisyo” is called “Taisyo”. “Taisyo” is a word to mean a general. “Taisyo” is named concerning a big snake, but it may be that such a dignified manner is an origin.

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