Have I been transformed into a viper? No – this picture shows an adder that I encountered earlier this week while on holiday. Despite being thirty-mumble years old and having spent a fair amount of time in the great outdoors, this is the first time I have set eyes on a specimen of Britain’s only poisonous snake and I was fascinating when Jane beckoned me forward on the path and pointed it out, stretched out, basking and nearly immobile.

I took lots of pictures, the best of which you can find on my Flickr account. A combination of the snake’s placid attitude and the zoom on my 70-300mm lens let me get in so close that you can see a hint of me reflected in the creature’s eye if you look at the full-size version.

Is that enough to qualify as a self portrait for my fiftytwo project? I think so because when I get engrossed in my creative endeavours, such as photography, I often reach a point where it is not about putting myself in the limelight but doing justice to my subject. I am the barest hint of a detail in this shot and that is sometimes the most fulfilling place to be.

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