Too Close
I was happily taking pics of this large lady who was a few feet away from me in the water. All I could see was her head and I was playing with the focus to get her eyes in focus, or her nostrils, or the green leaves and twigs that lay across her.
When she started blowing bubbles, I only thought "how cool" and began to search for focus on them. I hadn't seen an alligator blowing bubbles before and these firsts are a wonderful addition to a shoot on the trails.
I stepped a little down the incline closer to the water level in search of a better focus on the bubbles which seemed to be getting larger and that's when I realized that she too was getting closer.
Walking backwards up a muddy incline isn't really condusive to speed and she gained on me quite easily. By the time I was back on the solid footing of the trail, she was only three or four feet away and fully out of the water herself.
She looked at me and though her mouth was smiling, there was only annoyance in her eyes. I took another step or two back, all the time taking pics but when I finally stopped she did too and just stared at me. When I spoke to her and told her I was sorry for taking so many pictures and that I would leave her alone, she turned around and returned to the water. That's when I realized she was guarding her nest and she didn't want any paparazzi around her newborns (even though they were yet to hatch).