Day 5A…

This is day five of my photo challenge requested by my friend Don Bromberg.  A bunch of photographers from all over the planet are participating and it will be easy for you to participate too.

Choose 7 of your favorite photos and share them each day on your timeline to your friends and the world. I challenge ALL my photographic friends to this challenge.

Even though I’ve lived around and have been seeing alligators for over 40 years here in Florida it’s only been in the past 2 or 3 years that I’ve taken them seriously enough to photograph them for artistic purposes. I think that since I’ve seen so many of them in the woods and along the rivers over the years that I perceived them as pests instead of, well, art worthy.

I’ve learned first hand that alligators are pretty impressive creatures and that they possess some exclusive artistic attributes that just can’t be overlooked. I call this mid-sized alligator the “River Watcher”. I’ve had a  real “gator wrestler” identify her as a, well, her, mainly because her jowls are smaller than a male’s. Mildred, I nicknamed her Mildred, was found clutching this sprouting log on the edge of the St. Johns river just north of Hontoon Island, west of Deland, FL.

Mildred’s leathery skin was wet and reflected the extreme blue sky and the inside of her welcoming mouth had a natural pink glow. Her bulging jowls give you the impression that she might already be digesting a turtle or river fish, her favorite meal. Mildred’s scaly skin makes her look extra  mean and hungry and her bulging eyes poking out of her skull makes her look extra devious.

This picture is a composite made from a photograph, art rendering using DAP, and hand art drawing using several apps. Mildred looks extra vicious, for an alligator anyway, but the truth is that if we had taken the boat much closer to her she would have spooked, jumped from the downed snag, and disappeared under water in about 2 seconds.

This shot of Mildred is on the process of being printed to metal and will hang on the living room wall.