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Gator



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One of my son's and my favorite pastimes when we visit family in Florida is little nature excursions. We find a lot just in Grandma's yard but discove...
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One of my son's and my favorite pastimes when we visit family in Florida is little nature excursions. We find a lot just in Grandma's yard but discovered a small, urban wetlands park a few years ago. Alligators are the rare top predators among an incredible diversity of birds. On our most recent visit we were lucky to see this large gator near the elevated boardwalk. My son is starting to appreciate how sad it is that we humans have taken over so much of the Everglades, and continue to encroach.
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cameraCanon EOS 5D Mark IV

settings Aperture f/5.6 ISO 200 Shutter 1/100 Focal Length 150/1 

upload_dateJun, 2018

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2 Comments |
JayneBug Ultimate
 
JayneBug January 16, 2019
Intriguing. Outstanding image.
chriswhittier Platinum
chriswhittier January 16, 2019
Thanks Jayne- love your gallery.
thunderlake Platinum
 
thunderlake February 12, 2019
Incredible image!

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Tags

#american_alligator #native_wildlife #alligator #florida_wildlife #florida
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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken from an elevated walkway at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida. This amazing urban wetland park is part of a water reclamation project.

Time

It was a little after 10 AM when my 6 year-old son and I were just about finished with our stroll around the path and noticed this good-sized gator right beside/under the walkway.

Lighting

We typically try to get out of the Florida sun by this hour in May, but it was a hazy day so not too brutal. That allowed for some nice natural lighting but was also dark enough for me to play a bit with exposure and get this slight effect of the dull rippled water.

Equipment

I shot this with my Canon 5D Mark IV and- believe it or not- a Tamron SP 150-600 mm f/5 lens (handheld without flash). Though gators are the exciting draw, the wetlands is mostly a birders' paradise so I usually have just a long lens on my good camera. I could barely stand tall enough to focus this lens on the gator!

Inspiration

Charismatic megafauna are almost always a wildlife photographers goal so shooting gators in Florida is kind of a no-brainer when you can find them in these wild settings. In this case, it was particularly amazing to have this vantage point and lighting in order to capture something fairly unique.

Editing

I try to minimize post-processing and keep my images to what I actually saw. There were really nice greens in the water and on the gator but here I converted to black and white mostly to put attention on the textures. I slightly cropped and straightened the frame, dehazed a little, adjusted the tones and bumped the sharpness a tad.

In my camera bag

When shooting wildlife I normally carry just my 5D Mark IV, and one telephoto zoom lens, either a Canon 100-400 L or Tamron 150-600. Most days I prefer to be light but sometimes carry my old 5D (or 20 D if I might want flash) as back-up. When I'm out to shoot wildlife I don't even bother to carry a wide angle lens as my pocket Canon Powershot and even my phone can both shoot raw files. I do sometimes use a wide angle lens for landscapes or a macro for close-ups and love my Slik tripod, but rarely have the opportunity to use it. I also toy with a circular polarizer sometimes but otherwise avoid filters.

Feedback

I always say that being in the right place at the right time with the right kit is half the battle, the rest is about waiting for, or better- anticipating, the right moment. I've never been one to rattle off a 100 frames hoping for one that is ideal, especially around wild animals. Instead I usually trust my knowledge of animals' behavior to sense how they might move, what they might do next, etc., Here I was mostly lucky to stumble upon this gator virtually underneath my feet- so the rest was thinking about composition, lighting and shutter speed (slow enough to soften the water but fast enough to leave the resting gator sharp). The only way to have an opportunity similar to this is to find places to see magnificent animals like these...and the fact that this was shot in a part of very suburban wastewater treatment plant really shows that you can find cool creatures almost anywhere!

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