Did you ever look back at a photo and see something you weren't expecting?
Ulrike Kachel recently reviewed her birding photos at home and saw something within metres of her lens that could have killed her — a saltwater crocodile, estimated to be two metres long.
She was shooting resting sooty oystercatchers from dry land with a 350mm zoom lens near high tide, at East Point Reserve in Darwin.
"I was snapping away from different spots and concentrating because the light was already low," Dr Kachel said.
A strange shape in the shot
Dr Kachel was later cropping and bringing colour and light into the photo at home.
"Suddenly I saw a strange shape in the background," she said.
"Zooming in, I discovered a crocodile lying on the rocks behind it.
"I was lucky there was one photo where the camera auto focuses on the croc," she said.
"I got a nice sharp shot of the crocodile without even realising.
"A fellow birder went there just half an hour later than me and he didn't see a croc in his photos."
The croc's silent presence serves as a warning.
"He was absolutely just still on the rock," she said.
"People were actually on stand-up paddleboards at East Point beach."
'Everyone get out of the water'
The photo reminded Millner resident Brittany Austin of a similar croc-bomb situation as a child while the family was swimming at Dundee Beach on a January 26 family holiday many years ago.
"All-of-a-sudden my mum says: 'Everyone get out of the water … let's climb this cliff. Let's have a little race. Let's see how quickly we can get up the cliff'," Ms Austin paraphrased.
"We all thought that was so fun, we raced up the cliffs and turned back and there was a massive saltwater crocodile right where we'd been swimming.
"My nana had been taking photos.
"The photos were developed and you can see the crocodile in the background behind us swimming."
The photo has been lost in the family archives, but the memories are still very real for Ms Austin.
Croc 'taking refuge'
NT Parks and Wildlife ranger Ian Hunt said crocodiles are still active in the windy and wavy monsoon season. He estimated the croc to be up to two metres long.
"They do find it more difficult to stay out in the surf, so they find themselves pushed up onto beaches or up into the creeks where they'd prefer to be in the calmer water," he said.
"He's taking refuge by the looks of it, trying to get his breath back.
"It's pretty hard work trying to stay afloat in that rough weather and he's just clinging on to the only bit of hard ground he could find.
"There's never a safe time to enter the water up here."
