Having been in cypress swamps a few times, I think this conveys the environment quite well. There’s some depth to the image by having the open water and then more trees. I also like the composition and geometry of the lines - basking perch and living trees. The alligator pose is fantastic - look at those feet, that gape! I do wonder if the blacks aren’t a touch lifted too high. Seems to me the 'gator should be a richer black and you might pull down the immediate bottom edge a bit in exposure. Obviously it’s a bright sunny day so you don’t have to go too crazy. You could also selectively contour the luminosity in the background to increase the depth in the image. What a great catch! When I was down there it was too cold for 'gators or snakes so I didn’t see any, but it was bug free so that was a bonus.
This is a really nice look at the cypress swamp Allen. I like the subtle changes you made to the blacks. The gaping mouth and full view of the gator on the log is great. I really like the hanging mosses and the depth of this one as mentioned by @Kris_Smith. I think we sometimes have a tendency to zoom in too far and don’t really appreciate and capture the entire scene very well. You did a really good job of getting the big picture here.
My favorite wildlife images are those that tell the story of the animal’s life in its world… Closeups are interesting in their detail I guess, but they start to get boring after a while. Whereas, like you’ve accomplished in this image, the animal comes alive (yikes! those teeth! But really, ya know? He (she?) looks pretty happy and relaxed) for us, seeing it where it belongs, doing its animal thing. Kudos!
Great environment and beautiful subject !
I feel that you need to selectively work on contrast in this image, reducing it in some parts , while increasing it in some other parts, my two cents.
