A photographer’s quiet encounter with the rulers of Needville’s swampland.
By late afternoon, the Texas heat hangs in the air like a dare. The kind that makes the water shimmer and the breath in your lungs feel heavy. That’s when I saw him—just two eyes, floating above the surface at Brazos Bend State Park. No movement. No sound. Just a silent stare beneath the swamp’s golden glaze.
It’s the kind of moment you don’t stage. You witness it. Quietly. Respectfully.
Brazos Bend doesn’t hand you her beauty. You’ve got to wait for it. Sometimes it’s a flash of feathers. Other times, it’s a stare from a prehistoric king just beneath the water’s skin. I framed the shot and clicked once—he didn’t blink. Didn’t need to.
Further down the trail, I found another. This one had claimed a stretch of soft earth by the riverbank, stretched out like he owned the land—and maybe he does. Napping in the heat, jaw slack, completely unbothered. That’s the kind of Southern confidence you can’t fake.
Two gators. Two moods. One reminder: out here, you’re not the main character. Nature is.
© 2025 Sandy Adams | Photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, May 2015.
A Southern Girl's View with Sandy Adams 
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