Dave,
I have had the pleasure of seeing Rays form of sedation first hand. On a visit to my house in the late 1980's/early90's Ray wished to take several shots of some of my snakes.
One in particular, was a Dugite/Western Brown cross that had been obtained from Roy Pails. Ray advised me he would use an old trick of his to take the shots. Place the snake in a bag, than into the freezer for a few minutes. Even though I objected, Ray assued me it was absolutly safe and necessary. The snakes metabolism would be so slow it could be positioned(without trying to escape) long enough to take the pics.
After a few minutes in the freezer, the snake was removed from its bag. And what a surprise. No movement at all, not even breathing. Thats the trouble when your DEAD. I was furious that Ray had killed my snake, but he didnt care. He just placed the dead snake in my garden in a life like pose and took several shots. Rays stated he was sorry it died, but look on the bright side , at least I got my pic's.
He then wanted to put my Baroni Olive Python in the freezer for a try at that one. I totally refused, and said you will just have to do it the hard way. Ray managed only one good shot of the Baroni, which can now be seen in the Barker Python book.
