IF the snake in the pics. hogdogs posted was 8 1/2' long, its weight would most likely be between 12-15lbs. Seeing that an 8 footer has an average weight of about 10lbs.
Given those weights, it would not be hard at all to hold a smaller snake out away from your body to make it look bigger while taking pics..
A good story to Google is one about a DB caught in FLA. that was reported to be 15' long and weighed 140lb.
A few articles even reported the snake to weight 170lbs. Pics. show a cop(I think) holding the snake.
This story, IFAIK, was debunked and not only was the length grossly exaggerated but the laughable reported weight of 140lbs or 170lbs(depending on which story you read) was found to not be possible in a DB even if a freak DB was to ever be caught that was 15' long.
But, the story(fantasy) sure did sell a lot of newspapers.