Some bts from a snake shoot! This one comes with a good stor..

Some bts from a snake shoot! This one comes with a good story. It was a workshop, which means 5-6 photogs take turns shooting a concept they’ve chipped in on. So they rented the snakes and the snake handler. These snakes are pro at being handled and travel around Ontario doing little shows - but they’re still wild animals. So I show up a bit early, they were doing a back to back workshop and I was the second model. I hadn’t met the first model, but was eager to do so. Being early, I thought I’d chill in the washroom for a bit before going into “social mode”. In the washroom, I found the other model seemingly fixing her makeup in the mirror. I was excited to introduce myself to her and expressed this to her. She slowly turned, grasping her arm with tears in her eyes - “IT BIT ME”. Ah fuck. So I try to console her but she’s more upset about the embarrassment of being bit by a snake naked in front of people, there wasn’t much pain. I didn’t realize that. I tell her it looks like she was just grazed and it’ll be okay, and she reminds me it was still a freaking snake bite, which admittedly is a pretty scary thought as a Canadian, where we never have to worry about snake bites really. Pretty sure I blew it with that lady I was so excited to get to know, so I slowly slunked into the studio where the mood was also nervous and down. They explained the situation, the handler looked incredibly embarrassed even though it was clearly no one’s fault, just a statistic coming through out of our favour. They told me they stopped the shoot immediately after the bite (which didn’t break skin, so she was physically okay but like I said just kinda shocked) and told me I could choose not to shoot if I didn’t feel safe. I chose to shoot I’ll admit, this was probably one of the more nervous I’ve been on a shoot, though you can barely tell. I’ve worked with snakes a dozen or so times across different countries - different breeds, from pets to pros. But knowing that yellow snake was just agitated really made me nervous. I became acutely aware of how my breasts jiggled everytime I moved, and he seemed to prefer resting on my moving skin which was slightly terrifying. He hissed more than the normal snake, but never bit me or anything. It turned out to be fine, and the other model and I reconnected online and she was totally cool, I just met her at a bad time. I hope to shoot with her sometime in a covid free world! I can’t wait to get back to shooting ❤️🥰