Ground-level perspective

Komodo dragons are so dinosaur-like that when I was on Komodo Island in Indonesia, it felt I had stepped into Jurassic Park. The way they move, the way they rule the island, and their no-nonsense demeanor is so primitive and intimidating -- but fascinating at the same time. This is a female who was returning to her nest, and I got down as low to the ground as I could to take the picture. I did this for two reasons. First, the eye-level perspective produced a more intimate portrait, and second, getting low increased the stature of the dragon. In addition, almost everyone sees these 10-foot long giant reptiles from a standing position. That's scary enough, but to see them from the ground really gives a sense of awe. I used a 100-400mm lens for this shot using a Canon 7D Mark II, and it was set to 300mm. The effective focal length, then, was 480mm. My settings were 1/400, f/9, and 2000 ISO. I'm leaving mid-August to lead another tour here.