This has to be one trickiest shots I have taken. I was about 2.5 inches away from this cobra and was a little skeptical of getting any nearer hence stayed at this distance. It’s besides the point that the cobra was within easy striking distance of my arm (and I was extremely apprehensive in spite of the snake charmer’s assurances that the snake wouldn’t leap towards my throat, strangle me with it’s body whilst digging it’s fangs in my face) but at the 17mm end of my lens, I had to get this close to take this photograph.

I guess I was lucky to come across this snake charmer today (only the third I have ever seen in my life and had been trying to locate one for the last couple of years); his name is Ram Kumar and he captured 3 poisonous snakes from the Railway Museum (which were posing a hazard for the visitors there so he was called in to capture the snakes as opposed to killing them) and this was one of the three he has with him.