Photographing Alligators (or not)

During my various travels photographing birds, I have for the most part ignored alligators when I've seen them.  This is mainly because they are about as plentiful as mosquitoes here in Florida and I feel that if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all.  Up until a few years ago, we had a few gators in the pond that borders our back yard, so I hardly get excited when I see one. 

On many occasions where I've been visiting a wildlife sanctuary to photograph birds, invariably someone approaches me when they notice one of my rather large white lenses, to tell me they see an alligator that I should go photograph.  This always puts me in the rather awkward position of figuring out a polite way to tell them that I couldn't care less about photographing an alligator.  But keeping that thought to myself, I always thank them and tell them that perhaps I'll check it out when I'm finished with what I'm working on now.  I'm guessing that most of these folks are probably northern visitors.  I guess if I were in Maine and saw a whale, I'd get excited too.

Every now and then while photographing birds, I have also photographed the occasional alligator.  When I've done so, I did it with the thought that if I ever decided to take a closer look at gators I would have a few images to work with.  But unlike birds, gators all look the same to me with the exception of differences in size.  What sometimes sets them apart are different surroundings and/or colorful reflections in the water from trees or other foliage on the bank of the pond.

This past week at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, I saw many gators, but two in particular that were close together that finally caught my interest.  They were facing opposite directions and the soft early morning light made them interesting, so I decided to snap a few shots.  One was a little larger than the other (probably about 8 or 9 feet in length) and was facing to the left,while the smaller one was facing the right.


#N_112154  - Shot settings: 1/1250 @f6/3, iso 400 at 500mm, hand held

When I later took a closer look at these images on the computer, I liked what I saw so I figured it was finally time to post a few gator photos.  These first two images show the same gator.  The image below is a close up cropped from the one above.
[click on any image for a larger view]


#N_112154c (cropped from the photo above)

The soft light and a bit of fill flash reveal some detail in the head shot, and that's what I liked about this particular image. 

The next image is the smaller gator that was facing the right.  If you are thinking this is just your typical average boring alligator photo, I pretty much agree.  This is why I seldom bother to even take pictures of them.


#N_112142 (1/1000 @ f6.3, iso 400, at 500mm.)

Although gators all look about the same to me, sometimes different surroundings make the shot more interesting than the gator itself.  I particularly like colorful reflections, as shown in the next few images. 

Thinking back, I knew I had some images with reflections from the Everglades National Park, so I dug them out to add them to this post.  The same gator is pictured in both images below; the first a little further away and the second as it approached me a little closer.



#N_80810 (1/500 @f5.6, iso 400 at 420mm)



#N_80811 (1/500 @ f5.6, iso 400 at 420mm) 


This last image may be my favorite of the few I have shot over the last few years.  I like the open  mouth, and the way we can see the roof of the gator's mouth in the reflection in the water.

#N_63432 (1/200 @ f5.6, iso 800 at 400mm)

A Half-Day of Florida Birding

6185 - Great Egret in flight
Today I got out for the first time this season to do some birding, thanks to a friend visiting from Atlanta who was looking for some shooting company. We met at the rookery behind the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida. I was only shooting from 8am till noon, but it ended up being a surprisingly fruitful day. I was sort of bummed because I had to send my main camera in for service, so I was left to shoot with my backup rig, which is a 40d. This camera is slower to acquire focus than my Mk2N, but I was a little surprised at how capable it was once I got used to it. I didn't think about it until I was on my way home, but I actually could have photographed 7 different species of herons and egrets alone, if I had bothered to get at least one image of every kind I saw. In addition to herons and egrets, I also saw roseatte spoonbills and Wood Storks. Aside from opportunities to photograph adult birds, there were also chicks of several species and also some juvies. This post will be long on photos and short on text.

6063 - Great Egret chicks

There were plenty of opportunities for Great egrets, including many nests with chicks. I have never gotten what I consider a really good shot of chicks, and I after today I can still say that. But I did get a few shots that at least show the chicks pretty well. Note that in the photo above, the mother has already lost the bright green lore that you usually see as the birds get into breeding season. In the photo below, you can see another of the same species in full breeding colors. I would guess this one is about at peak color.

6014 - Great Egret breeding colors

I'm not normally a fan of white sky backgrounds, and most of my photos with white backgrounds end up in the recycle bin. But the one below works for me and I like it. It's probably the first time I've posted a photo of a white bird with a white background. I was fortunate in my timing to capture the egret with a nice full wing spread.

6161 - Great Egret with nesting material

I was hoping to get a good shot of a cattle egret, and while I saw a few with good color, all were in nests that were obstructed by too many sticks for a decent photo. I'm posting one anyway, just to show the breeding colors. When the colors are at peak, the lore is a purple and looks pretty cool.

6114 - Cattle Egret

I saw a few snowy egrets, but none in good breeding colors. Here is an example of what I am talking about. These birds look a lot prettier when the lore is bright red.

6104 - Snowy Egret

This tricolor heron hung around for a while so I waited until I could get an unobstructed shot. There was a piece of a branch in the upper right corner of the frame that I cloned out.

6026 - Tricolor Heron

Below is a headshot of another tricolor heron that had a little nicer color. This bird was facing away from me at first, but I liked the background so I waited a long time until it turned its head to give me this shot.

6132 - Tricolor Heron headshot

I saw lots of wood storks in nests with chicks, but most of them were too high up in trees to get a good shot. I waited for a long time before this chick stood up and faced me. There were two chicks in this nest but they never got up at the same time while I was watching.

6271 - Wood stork with chick

As I was about to leave, I noticed a great blue heron standing on a tree limb above the swamp. It did not give me the head turn I hoped for, but I snapped this photo anyway.

6275 - Great Blue Heron

This ended up being a very productive day compared to most outings, and I felt like I got at least a half-dozen keepers. This was partly due to the overcast conditions, which kept the light pretty soft for a good part of the morning, well past the time when the bright sunlight would normally be spoiling most opportunities for decent photos. In addition to what is shown here, I saw roseatte spoonbills and a few green herons, but I didn't have an opportunity to get any decent shots of them. Since I spent the morning walking on a boardwalk above a swamp full of alligators, I'll end with a headshot of a gator. I captured this mage because I liked the color of reflections in the water.

6023 - Gator