Species: American Alligator
Location: Okefenokee Swamp
Date: Summer 1992

I still need to go through my photos and pick out which ones I wish to post up to this gallery, but this is one I have always been delighted about, despite it being out of focus.

I took a trip to the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia back in 1992. It was still fairly early in the day and while walking around, this ~7 foot alligator was sunning itself on the grass. I moved in to about 8 feet away and lay on the ground. There was nothing between it and myself, but it was obvious that it was accustomed to people being around, and was not alarmed or agitated.

The zoom lens I had on the camera was too close for the short distance between us, so I proceeded to change lenses, and it was just as I got the wider angle lens on, that he started to yawn and I quickly raised the camera and snapped this shot.

Unfortunately, my old Pentax camera was manual focus and manual film advance. I had never seen an alligator yawn before and was not sure how quickly it might happen, and in my excitement at the good fortune widening before me, I rushed to take the picture. This resulted in not only the poor focus, but if I had waited another second, I would have captured the throat flap open and a clear shot down it's gullet. By the time I advanced the film to the next frame, the yawn was over and the alligator proceeded to rise up and turn away.

So, while not the most spectacular of pictures, the memory of that moment will always make it my most cherished to date. The smaller size is also because this was a scan made of the photo and using a higher resolution would not increase the quality in any way.