Looking into the face of a Komodo dragon must haven been exactly the same as looking into the face of a dinosaur. Very primitive, very intriguing, and very scary. Komodo dragons live primarily on three islands in Indonesia, and they are the largest living reptiles in the world. Their mouths are so toxic that their prey die a few days after a single bite. One of the rangers on Komodo Island had been bitten a year before my first visit, and he survived but was hospitalized for four months. I tried to shoot as low as possible to create a dynamic and intimate perspective, but the dragons are very close to the ground. Lying flat to shoot -- which is what I really wanted to do -- was too dangerous. So, I kneeled down and bent as low as I could to get this low-angled shot. That way I could back up quickly to get out of their way if need be. My settings for this photo were 1/250, f/14, and 2500 ISO. I shot with a Canon 100-400mm zoom set to 300mm. To capture the full extension of the fast-flickering tongue, I used a frame rate of 14 fps.
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