A mid-sized Alligator in the typical ‘life is good’ mode. I guess living life in the moment is not a bad thing for a gator all things considered.
The Alligator is about 6 foot maybe. This means it could be either a male or female.
When out we shoot a lot. It’s not unusual for me to have 1,200 shots a day. That does take a lot of time to go through them all. Some folders just get missed.
It would have been a shame if I hadn’t stumbled on this one LOL.
The morning started out foggy and gave some great photographs.
Some things were hidden too though. If the sun hadn’t been low over the swamp and streamed through duck weed I would never have noticed them.
The first two images I leaned over the edge to get some branches to frame the big guy. I could see the sun in his eye so I grabbed these quick. In the shadows but some nice drama.
Next one I spotted I just went for the shape. He was buried in the thick weed.
American Alligator in a swamp filled with dick weed.
Yeah, not big except that’s just his eyes on the surface.
American Alligator.
It’s fun, like shooting a long while ago, but no chemicals or waiting a week for the prints.
I read that you have to learn to see in black and white, plan the contrasts. OK, but I have a perfectly good electronic view finder, much better than back in the day (like there were none).
The OM Systems OM-1 is very customizable, and easy, so I have taken advantage of it for monochrome shots.
I have my C1 dial set for ;
Editors can still work very well with JPG files. For years I made the mistake of believing an image was cast in stone unless in RAW. Certainly you can do less, but a good editor works fine. RAW editors (like DxO Photolab) only do RAW, but Lightroom, ON1, NIK, Topaz, all work with other file formats too.
So, yeah it’s just fun.
I just must say this…
Best viewed large.
Note; When an Alligator opens his mouth like this it is either a warning, or more likely just cooling off. They cool down by breathing through their mouth. Oh, if he’s not getting cool there will be a deep hissing sound…trust me you’ll know.
I can never get enough of these critters.
A tale; The first year we moved here Ellen and I often went out shooting, and learning the ropes, with a group of local South Carolina photographers. Me being the only man, and a Yankee at that 😝. Soon my love of alligator photography made me ‘point’ when out walking in the marshes.
It was common to hear ‘send gator bait out first…’. And yes the name stuck. More than once we have been around town and been greeted with ‘Hey, Gator Bait’. People do look around to see who it is they are calling to. 🤣🤣🤣.
A few fun, and interesting, photographs of some big alligators.
Why, because just look at these critters !
