Behind The Photo contest - Edition #3

This is my entry for the Behind the Photo contest, sponsored by @appreciator and judged by @nelyp and @johan.norberg. To submit, check out this link.

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To find out the story behind it, keep reading :)

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Nursing a monster hangover, I decided to head down to the the pool in our condominium, to clear my head.

Once inside the icy cold water, I heard a rather loud rustling, overhead, in the surrounding trees.

In the past, I’d seen iguanas leap from the nearby palms directly into our pool (fair enough, I'd thought, they need to cool off, too, and they were here, first...)

So, out of respect (and a touch of fear, as I'm nearly blind without my glasses) I got out of the water.

Not too far from where I stood, I spotted this wild creature lurking, poolside, and about to climb a tree.

Now, Florida is Jurassic park; dinosaurs are alive & well, here! But, this was still one of the largest--if not the largest--iguana I'd ever been around.

Wanting to capture this moment, I carefully reached for my iphone 8 and inched very slowly in the direction of this magnificent beast.

The emerald being did not seem in a hurry to get away from me, but neither was it was not too keen about my getting too close, too soon.

I experimented with portrait mode on my phone and zoomed in closer, as it made its gettaway and began climbing the nearest tree.

In sunny Florida, even at the end of the year, the light is great. While the creature rested, momentarily, I decided to push my luck.

It was truly thrilling to be so close to such a giant lizard and I got greedy, wanting to also capture how it moved.

I switched to video mode and got amazing footage.

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Look how powerful its legs are, as it climbs:

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This brief encounter had, already, made my day and I didn't feel right bothering the gigantic gecko much further. Taking my time, I retreated upstairs to share images and story with my wife (and quickly pack by bag to hop on a plane to DC).

Once in DC, I was enthusiastically greeted by my nieces and nephews (I have 16 of them, all under the age of 14) and I wasted no time in wowing them my with pictures and video of Godzilla :)

Here's a collage I made of this marvelous experience, that I hope you have enjoyed, as well!