It was moving swiftly towards us, propelled by a tail moving back and forth through the swampy water. The ever-widening, rippling circles around that tail speak of its inexorable approach. When I made this image standing at water’s edge, this partially submerged alligator was barely a few feet from shore and still in motion. I waited as long as I could to get the most out of the pattern it was leaving on the surface of the water, and then made this image at a focal length of only 93mm. It works as an expressive wildlife photograph because it is more than just a description of an oncoming alligator. It is an image of threat, a throw back in time to an age when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The soft puffy clouds, reflected on the water’s surface, offer a benign counterpoint to the danger rushing towards us.