A monster croc

Of all the wildlife encounters I’ve haD, it was this guy that scared me the most. I wasn’t scared when a rhino pawed the ground ready to charge or when a captive Gabon viper was 12 inches from my shoes. I should have been, but I wasn’t. Not even when a huge bull elephant weighing probably 13,000 pounds was drinking about 10 feet from my blind. Crocodiles are such efficient killing machines that they have remained essentially unchanged for the past 200 million years. Why improve upon survival perfection? This was in Kenya, and a half hour earlier, from my safari vehicle, I saw a Nile crocodile swallow a full-grown impala, horns and all, in two gulps. My photo tour group had stopped for breakfast at a plateau just above the Mara River, and I had wandered down to the water’s edge with a fixed 500mm f/4 telephoto plus a 1.4x teleconverter. I spotted this croc at what I assumed was a safe distance. I estimated the width of this monster to be about 6 feet wide, and it was likely to be 20 feet long. There was an embankment behind me, and crocs don’t climb well. In my stupid, gotta-get-the-shot mental state, I thought the steep slope would be my escape plan should I need it. I was so nervous that I only took a couple of shots and then I retreated. Every time I look at this picture, I can remember the level of fear. My settings were 1/1250, f/5.6, and 320 ISO.