Call Me The Alligator Paparazzi!

This past weekend we took a family trip to Hilton Head to celebrate my birthday.

I was caught completely by surprise when Alain, Sophie & Clara presented me with a brand, spanking new camera as a birthday gift. Oh, I was so thrilled!!!  I could hardly wait to take it out and give it a spin.  The next morning we headed out to the Nature Preserve and I made the mistake of only taking along the smaller of my two new lenses.  As we were driving there, who did we see hanging out by a nearby pond?

Oh yes.

How wild is this picture?

I should tell you that every car, bike, person had stopped to stare and take photos. I was on a small peninsula across the pond along with three other people and we were all snapping photos.  I mentioned to the other photographers that these alligators have no idea how famous they are.  They're simply trying to get some sun and warm up and we're all flocking to take photos.  Then I proclaimed us "alligator paparazzi" and we all laughed pretty hard over that!  I wish someone had taken a picture of all of us with our cameras shooting away ~ that would be pretty funny.

A few minutes later we see these two gators hanging out by another pond. I was cursing myself that I hadn't brought along my better lens.  You can barely see them....

Never fear.

The next day we find this handsome fella catching some rays.  Lucky for me, I'd made sure to have the long lens along for our ride. This picture is taken over a great distance and it looks SO CLOSE.  I was seriously like a child when I saw how this picture turned out.  (Click on it to see how nice it is ~ I can't show it as big as the original size or it takes over the entire blog!).

This camera is seriously my favorite material possession.  I'm quite sure I'll have it plastered to my face for who knows how long!  I can't wait to share what I capture!