Most of the turtles that I have seen on recent sunny days have climbed out of the water entirely to bask in the sun, but this Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) seems to have taken a more tentative approach.
Although he seems poised for a quick reentry into the water, he seemed undisturbed when I approached him to take this photo. The angle of the photo provides a view of the turtle’s torso that I rarely see, and as you can probably tell, I got down pretty low to get the shot.
I was surprised by the amount of red on his body and the length of his claws. When I saw the claws, I decided not to go for an extreme close-up shot. I can only imagine the newspaper headline, “Wildlife photographer mauled by killer turtle.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
I saw a couple of turtles last summer and was surprised how difficult they were to identify. I had no idea we had so many different kinds of turtles in this area.
“…slowly mauled as the photographer repeatedly attempted to get that ‘perfect shot’ while ignoring the obvious red tinge on his lens due to a minor head wound.”
Fine-looking turtle! Though I have to say your blog title was a little less exciting than your imaginary newspaper headline!
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