Up close and personal with a croc

I photographed this Nile crocodile in the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya. The lodge where I was staying was situated adjacent to the Mara River, and this crocodile was fed every night by the kitchen people in the lodge. It was a very bizarre experience to be so close to such a monster and yet be protected by a low stone wall about four feet high. Crocodiles can’t climb walls, so even though I was standing only six feet away from death itself, there was no danger. Earlier that day, I had seen a crocodile swallow an impala whole — horns and all — in two gulps. Talk about intimidating! I used an on camera flash for this image, and my settings were 1/60, F/2.8, and 200 ISO. I shot this with a 70-200mm lens set to 140mm for this framing-filling composition.