I’d been to this spot dozens of times before, but always during the day, which occasionally presented me with some adrenaline-pumping hurdles. Not far from this very spot, on a meandering trail run through this area I would do, I saw a few rattlesnakes, some giving me advance warning of their presence, others just lunging at me, probably surprised and startled at the large animal running by that also gave them no warning. I safely made it to the spot where these beautiful twin oaks reside one evening, no rattlers having greeted me on the hot August evening.
It was a scene I’d wanted to shoot forever; I love well-formed oaks on ridges, so to get two next to each other on a super clear evening with the Milky Way overhead was a real treat. The sun sets quickly behind the Tehachapi Mountains however, so I had to make tracks with all my gear the 1.5 miles back to the trailhead where I parked to not get caught in the dark. Snakes were on my mind, and as I came around a switchback a four foot King Snake, yellow and black striped, just sat there, staring at me, tongue licking the air without aggression as I gingerly dodged the serpent and basically ran the whole way back to my car.