-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), October 05, 1998

Answers

Good color. Nice framing. Excellent catchlight in the gator's eye. Nice indication of motion through the ripples in the water. All in all, a very nice shot!

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), October 05, 1998.

In addition to agreeing with Mark's comments, I think the exposure is excellent, and I love the reflection in the water. My only suggestion would be to have placed the subject in a little less centered position, (perhaps a little more room on the left of the frame) but this is being REALLY picky; it's a terrific shot! I'd be interested in tech information, since once I realized just how quickly these critters can move, I've always kept my distance and ended up with a relatively small subject in the frame. Did you crop this shot, use really big glass, or take your chances and go close? Nice work!

-- Sandy Quandt (sandyquandt@centuryinter.net), October 05, 1998.

Well done, Peter! Can Captain Hook be far behind? I can almost hear the ticking of the clock in his belly... Nifty shot!

-- Lee Daniels (webmaster@darwinmgt.com), October 05, 1998.

Boy, Pete, you nailed this one. The motion indicated by the ripples is really nice. Did you use only the camera's meter or did you modify the suggested exposure?

-- Alex Aycrigg (grigg80@hotmail.com), October 05, 1998.

I agree that the image of the gator is well done, but my eye is drawn to the out of focus grass, leaf?, in the bottom of the frame. Could this not have been avoided? By shifting the camera up just enough to miss this leaf you also could have avoided the slightly busy grassy background, leaving the gator surrounded by the nice reflections in the water.

-- Robert pailes (rpailes@peganet.com), October 06, 1998.

Upon looking further at the image, I now can't even tell if the green I spoke of might actually be part of the reflection in the water, and not in the foreground. That being the case, I understand that it was obviously unavoidable and would just remain a slight distraction for the eye. If so, I stand corrected.

-- Robert Pailes (rpailes@peganet.com), October 06, 1998.

Robert, You are correct that the fuzzy green thing is a out of focus leaf in the foreground. I don't get the rest of your suggestion though; shifting the view up to avoid the leaf would have resulted in more of the busy grass background, not less. Am I missing something? This was taken with a 400mm lens, and is uncropped. I think I used the N6006's manual metering system and metered on the grass in the background, but I'm not sure about that.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), October 06, 1998.

Duh, I get it, Robert. Take the picture from a higher vantage point. For a variety of reasons I won't go into, that wasn't a possibility, but the suggestion is sound. My brain works a bit slow in the a.m., when it works at all.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), October 06, 1998.

Nice job Peter. I like it. The only thing I'd change is to crop the bullrushes/grass in the background down to the root. The reflection in the water of these is enough to suggest habitat and yet not distract the eye.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), October 06, 1998.

The nose wake gives movement to this image. Nice job.

-- Larry Korhnak (lvk@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu), October 15, 1998.

Am I correct in guessing this was taken at the Anhinga Trail in the Florida Everglades?

-- Jim DeLuco (j.deluco@neccsd.com), October 15, 1998.

No, Jim, this wasn't at Anhinga trail. It was taken in a relatively unknown National Wildlife Refuge in central Florida. If you're interested in more details, please e-mail me off-list. Thanks to everyone for all of your generous comments.

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), October 15, 1998.