The Everglades at sunrise is one of America’s great photographic experiences. It requires arriving before dawn, walking into the dark with a tripod, and waiting with absolute stillness while the world wakes up around you. The roseate spoonbills arrive first, their improbable pink standing out against the grey pre-dawn water. Then the alligators surface. Then the sky goes from purple to orange to gold in a sequence that lasts about 8 minutes — and then it’s over, and the day begins, and the moment is either on your sensor or it isn’t.
National Geographic photographer Edin Chavez has photographed the Everglades across multiple seasons and conditions, returning to the same locations in different light until the images capture what this extraordinary wilderness actually looks and feels like. The result is a 105-image collection that documents America’s largest subtropical wilderness with the depth and quality it deserves.
About Everglades National Park
The Everglades is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The “River of Grass” — the shallow, slow-moving sheet of water that flows south from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay — supports an extraordinary biodiversity: over 350 species of birds, 300 species of fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles, including the American crocodile and the American alligator.
Photographically, the Everglades offers subjects that exist nowhere else in North America: roseate spoonbills in flight at sunrise, alligators in water that reflects a burning sky, mangrove forests at golden hour, and the vast open prairies of sawgrass that give the wilderness its name.
The Photography
The Everglades is notoriously difficult to photograph well — the light changes fast, the wildlife is unpredictable, and the conditions that produce extraordinary images (fog, colored sunrise light, still water for reflections) are brief and unreliable. Edin Chavez’s 105-image collection represents years of visits, thousands of frames, and the patience to wait for the conditions that elevate a photograph from documentation to art.
Available Prints
- Browse all 105 Everglades photographs →
- Fine Art Giclée on archival cotton rag paper — from $95
- ChromaLuxe Metal Print — the water and wildlife colors are exceptional on metal
- Sizes 8×10″ to 40×60″
- Certificate of Authenticity with every order
- Free shipping on orders over $250
Recommended Sizes for Everglades Photography
Landscape compositions — The wide horizontal shots of the sawgrass prairie and the open water reward large format. A 24×36″ or 30×40″ landscape print creates a window effect — you feel the scale of the wilderness. Consider a panoramic (20×40″ or 20×60″) for the most sweeping compositions.
Wildlife compositions — The roseate spoonbills, the alligators, and the bird-in-flight shots work beautifully at 16×20″ and 20×30″. These are powerful images at human scale that work in hallways, offices, and dining rooms.
The Everglades and Florida Conservation
The Everglades is one of the most threatened ecosystems in America — water management, development pressure, and climate change have reduced the original Everglades to less than half its historic extent. Owning and displaying fine art photography of the Everglades is a statement about what you value and what you want to persist. These photographs are a record of something precious — and a reason to protect it.
Photographs by Edin Chavez — National Geographic photographer, Nikon professional, Masters of Photography. Based in Miami Beach, Florida. Fine art prints available at edinfineart.com.