Creating this photograph was one of the crazier days I’ve ever had photographing anything in my entire life. When we started the day, they told me that the closest we could get to the gator would be 6 feet and by the end of the day we got much closer than that!
During this photograph, a pigeon landed on my foot and the gator did what it does, it closed one of the ties, which I was later told indicated that it was ready to attack as the pigeon walked off my foot and over to the gator. The gator stared at the pigeon. The girl, my leg, the pigeon, we were all in a standoff. Everyone on set was holding their breath, no one was making a sound and the pigeon was examining the gator and the gator examining the pigeon. I looked at the bird and everything in my mind said, “get out of here”. I looked at the gator and I said, “no not today” and sure enough moments later the pigeon lost interest and flew off. It was in that moment that I knew this photograph was supposed to happen because in all accounts that gator should have bitten the pigeon or my foot the moment it landed.
When I do these types of images, it reminds me that the image was always meant to exist, I just haven’t taken it yet and this image is no exception to that. The first thing people ask is if the gator is real and I can assure you he was real and his name was Gary. He started out the day very grumpy but by the end, he did everything I asked of him.
-Tyler Shields