Wildlife - 1st Place

Huh? 17 mm means that you were pretty close to this beauty for at least a minute, did you hypnotize it?? But I really like the atmosphere here, nice picture! Judging from the long exposures, I guess this was not done from a boat?

Hi Paul, good to see you posting in this gallery again; I love seeing your images as they are not only amazingly beautiful, but also truly unique! This one is no exception and is one that shows off your ability as well as your creative mind.

Not sure what you were after since you say this isn't the image you planned on - but it's really amazing. Unique, not over-saturated (or fake looking) a little bit of stars, nice drama and doesn't have a wacky WA look to it (thanks tilt shift!). Congrats

Good thing it didn't go as planned. This shot would be difficult to beat.

Stunning work Paul, congrats!

Check back with us once you get what you wanted, Paul. In the meantime, I look forward to more accidents like this.

Max

Very cool. Has sort of a dreamlike quality. I wish accidents like this happened to me.

Excellent job, congratulations.

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Roel, no I was on the shore, about 6 inches from his snout.

Luke, and all, I'm keeping the planned shot a secret for now but if it happens, it will be up here. I just don't think conditions will work this year for it.

Thanks again!
Paul

The is special and your gator model did a great job of working with you. I wonder about the choice of square format, when the overall composition is so carefully (and expertly) composed. Your mastery of the nighttime technique deserves applause! Over all...Cool!

Great choice of wide angle ...and a superb composition

Thanks again everyone!

Lon, that is the nature of using the shift feature on a tilt shift lens. This is an extremely wide view, as you can imagine, with 2 17mm views stacked on top of each other. The single frame containing the gator did not contain much more than 50% of what is shown here so I shifted up to get more of the scene. There is maybe a 5% crop done for straightening but otherwise you are looking at everything I got. A square would never be my first choice either but my only other choice would have been to take 3 verticals shifted left to right and that sounds extremely daunting with light painting and a sky exposure to take into account! Hope this explains it well.

Thanks again for all the comments!

Paul!! This is absolutely astounding! Technical mastery and artistry are unsurpassed! Congratulations on the accomplishment! I'd like to see a lot of awards attached to this work with your name in big letters. The Pick is a nice first one. ;-)

After spending much time appreciating your work, I'm left to wonder how one determines that 6" is a safe working distance from a gator. Congratulations on the WP.

Very moody and effective -
Congrats on the WP!
Sandy

What a skilful and unique image. A very well deserved award...congrats!
Grt, Ingrid.

Paul - I missed this one. Good thinking, great shot - congratulations, well deserved!

Congrats Paul - fabulous image, well deserved!

Paul, congratulations...
Thank you very much for sharing this amazing shot with us.

Dark and foreboding - excellent capture and processing.
Congrats on the 2013 EP!

Sandy