American Alligator With Teratoma?

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. The alligator was in the grass on the edge of Wading Bird Way trail. I sat on the ground and captured a few images because the alligator had a apparent tumor. I didn't notice the teeth in the tumor until reviewing the images at home. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a monopod
1/1600 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 640 WB set by eyedropper, image captured at 280mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction, whitened the teeth
Full frame

[Jonathan Ashton]

He certainly has a tumour I suspect it was virally induced. When I posted images of gharials I was struggling to get a good white balance, this image looks a little magenta to me, I have an alternative for your consideration:-

[haseeb badar]

Hi Joseph -- I liked this tight portrait and you have some good details in there. Colour is always subjective but a slight tweak in WB towards warmer side might make that bluish cast disappear but it is a matter of taste. You could have gone for more DOF to extract more details in the hide. I also think that you could clone out that grass blade running across its face , it is a bit distracting. Cropping further from the top for a further tighter frame ? Wdyt ?

Nice one, TFS !

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, I quite like the framing here and I might be tempted to remove the blade of grass, not sure f you may have done a few others, but then again, perhaps it adds? I might however, tone down that leaf top LHC. The tumour seems not to affected the Croc, I wonder if it's TB like Lions get, you see swellings on their 'elbows', not nice. Yes, overall the image is displaying a Blue bias and this should by now be fixed before posting, hopefully it's the WB in camera rather than PP. I would increase your sharpening, it pulls more detail out. DoF looks about right, although is the tip of the snout 'in focus'?

Nice to see something different joe, lets see more please.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

An interesting find for sure. The framing is right on. Having the eye clear was a bonus. Detail and texture look good.