Sony A77ll
400mm · f/7.1 · 1/800 · ISO 640
These are wild gators. When the babies are small, mom stays around to protect them, and she usually doesn't move them far from the nest where they hatched. They don't ride on her often and when they do, it's amazing how many ways they can ride her that don't translate well in a photo. It's also difficult to get eye contact from both mom and baby at the same time. I spent about a month, and well over 100 hours waiting for a good photo op. This was one of my favorite poses.
I cropped to remove some distracting reflections and zoom in on the faces. I denoised, sharpened and adjusted the colors.
great shot