Love Bite Gator Style
One of my goals while taking photos of the baby alligators at Brazos Bend State Park this year was to get a shot of a baby sitting on momma’s head. Ended up having to settle for one on her nose instead. This youngster was showing momma some affection with a little love bite to her eye. Momma didn’t seem to mind and only collapsed her eye lid on the last photo. The baby then looked like he was going to crawl up her head when someone walking up the trail stopped too close to them and she dove to her left into the water. I’m sure that the baby went flying. Wish that I had gotten that shot.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens with 1.4x III teleconverter mounted on tripod with Wimberley II head
1/640 sec @ F9, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm
1/500 sec @ F11, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm
1/400 sec @ F11, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm
1/500 sec @ F11, ISO 800, evaluative metering, +1 exposure compensation, 700mm
You Want a Piece of Me??
This baby Alligator was holding his ground doing his best to try to intimidate the guy taking his photo. Wasn’t too scared by this little guy but always had to keep an eye out for his mother. This shot helps to demonstrate the narrow depth of field with a close-up shot using a 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. Had to use F16 just to get his head in focus.
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens with 1.4x III teleconverter mounted on tripod with Wimberley II head
1/200 sec @ F16, ISO 800, evaluative metering, 700mm
Gator Crossing
Why did the gator cross the road? In this case, the mother alligator was heading to check on her babies that were on the other side of the trail after the Great Blue Heron picked one of them off. Normally when gators cross the trail, they end up lying down and resting along the way as it takes lots of energy for them to walk on land. Not this time. Momma was hiking with a vengeance and didn’t stop to smell the roses as she quickly walked from one side to the other. It only took her about 10 seconds to make the trip based on my photos. She only stayed about 10 minutes and came back to the other side. She also looked much larger and intimidating out of the water.
About 1/2 hr later, one of the little ones crossed the trail. Saw him coming up the bank and ended up taking my camera off of the tripod and laid down on the trail to get a series of photos of the crossing. I’m usually leery of laying down at BBSP around alligators but couldn’t resist this shot. Love the markings on the young gator. He was also tagged, with what looks like green fishing line, as described by one of the park rangers. A second one was also going to cross but got scared away by someone on a bicycle. He ended up coming back to momma’s side of the trail about 45 minutes later. Sometimes the grass isn’t greener on the other side…
Also, here’s a tip on how to identify a female alligator in the wild…check to see if the gator is wearing high heels 🙂 (see photo below)
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens
1/200 sec @ F7.1, ISO 1600, evaluative metering
1/320 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, evaluative metering
1/640 sec @ F9, ISO 1600, evaluative metering
Missed Opportunity – GBH Grabs Baby Gator
While taking baby gator photos at Brazos Bend State Park, had a very interesting experience that left me both angry at myself and also feeling very lucky.
Had the ideal, one in a lifetime, photo opportunity with a Great Blue Heron grabbing a baby alligator. Found the GBH in the area where the babies were the previous weekend but momma gator was on the other side of the trail. Knew to keep an eye on the GBH just in case the action happened. I was trying to get a decent shot of the GBH when I made a couple of major errors right before the action hit. I turned the camera vertical, switched to the top most focusing point and used F16 to get the GBH in focus as he was full framed at 500mm. Immediately after I did that, the GBH struck and grabbed a little gator right in front of me. Had my flash going but it didn’t help much as I lost the focus point and only got a shutter speed of 1/25 to 1/30 sec. It happened too quick for me to recover and change settings. Oh well, it happens.
The other interesting part was that the GBH then flew away over the trail where the momma gator was and who apparently was watching the action. The gator shot out across the water about 40 ft making a large wave trying to get to the GBH. Now that would have been a photo-op. She wasn’t even close but it was quite an experience to see the whole episode unfold right in front of me.
The biggest lesson learned for me had nothing to do with my missed photos. Note to self: don’t stand between a mother gator and her young when they are attacked. She could have easily shot out of the water and ran right into me on her way to the GBH. Therefore, I consider myself lucky to see the action and not to be in the path of an angry mother gator. In reality, I didn’t kick myself that much as it was very cool to see and there were some other decent photo op’s that day.
Here are some of the resulting photos just to punish myself on what I missed. Maybe in my next lifetime…
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens mounted on tripod with Wimberley II head, all uncropped full framed photos
1/60 sec @ F11, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer, just prior to setting it to F16
1/30 sec @ F16, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer
1/25 sec @ F16, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer
1/25 sec @ F16, ISO 1600, evaluative metering, fill flash with better beamer
Tim Timmis Photography 