by Adrienne Graham
Cecil Schwalbe is a professional herpetologist who came on Tuesday to our workshop along with another lady, to teach us how tell a story through photography.
He came, if I recall, a little past noon and Elena the director had told us that he would be bringing his “pets”, which were a rattlesnake, a gila monster and 2 baby turtles. I’m Navajo, so my first reaction was to tell her its against my tradition to look or touch one because it brings bad luck. I walk into the conference room we have to meet in.
Cecil tells us that we will be taking pictures and videos of him telling us how to handle the rattlesnake, and so we all leave together and Cecil asks who wants to carry his critters out and Elena and Kei Ann volunteer to carry them out, and I’m on the elevator with Elena, who unfortunately had to be carrying the rattlesnake and so I try to rush in the elevator so I can be the first in the back so I can be the furthest I can be from the snake. That didn’t happen but I was lucky enough to stand next to the reptile……
We walk in a group across the street to the baby turtle pond to take pictures and tape him handling the snake. I walk over to the little turtle pond and take a few pictures of them swimming and floating as Cecil talks about his experience and his past, as he begins to open the box to the rattle snake he also warns us to be a little distant. As he opens the box and puts in the snake tongs you can here the excitement and the piercing sound of the snake’s rattle, and that gives the signal for everyone to take their steps back from Cecil and the snake, which is now on the grass.
I am on the phone with my little sister at this point telling her what the group is up too and she begins to tease me about being the “Snake Girl”, so I hung up and decided to call my mom who had been busy at the time. I call her back later and then I peek over my shoulder to see the groups progress, they had brought out the baby turtle and I had to fight the urge to not run over there and gush about their over cuteness.
After that he put all his pets away and we all walked back together to the building and went straight to the lab to get our videos up, into iHome and finish editing our videos. Most of us started typing up our rough drafts and putting them into some file to be checked so for the rest of the day. I just began to type, but I didn’t have enough information to finish I still needed an interview so I decided to not follow through with the interview. I began to type and I didn’t finish till the next day but I got a good lead on that article and so did this blog!
He came, if I recall, a little past noon and Elena the director had told us that he would be bringing his “pets”, which were a rattlesnake, a gila monster and 2 baby turtles. I’m Navajo, so my first reaction was to tell her its against my tradition to look or touch one because it brings bad luck. I walk into the conference room we have to meet in.
Cecil tells us that we will be taking pictures and videos of him telling us how to handle the rattlesnake, and so we all leave together and Cecil asks who wants to carry his critters out and Elena and Kei Ann volunteer to carry them out, and I’m on the elevator with Elena, who unfortunately had to be carrying the rattlesnake and so I try to rush in the elevator so I can be the first in the back so I can be the furthest I can be from the snake. That didn’t happen but I was lucky enough to stand next to the reptile……
We walk in a group across the street to the baby turtle pond to take pictures and tape him handling the snake. I walk over to the little turtle pond and take a few pictures of them swimming and floating as Cecil talks about his experience and his past, as he begins to open the box to the rattle snake he also warns us to be a little distant. As he opens the box and puts in the snake tongs you can here the excitement and the piercing sound of the snake’s rattle, and that gives the signal for everyone to take their steps back from Cecil and the snake, which is now on the grass.
I am on the phone with my little sister at this point telling her what the group is up too and she begins to tease me about being the “Snake Girl”, so I hung up and decided to call my mom who had been busy at the time. I call her back later and then I peek over my shoulder to see the groups progress, they had brought out the baby turtle and I had to fight the urge to not run over there and gush about their over cuteness.
After that he put all his pets away and we all walked back together to the building and went straight to the lab to get our videos up, into iHome and finish editing our videos. Most of us started typing up our rough drafts and putting them into some file to be checked so for the rest of the day. I just began to type, but I didn’t have enough information to finish I still needed an interview so I decided to not follow through with the interview. I began to type and I didn’t finish till the next day but I got a good lead on that article and so did this blog!