At first glance, Steven Scott Grogin’s wildlife photos look like the kind of images that must have required heavy professional camera gear. But the international award-winning photographer captures his incredibly detailed close-ups of reptiles, amphibians, insects, and swamp life using something far more familiar: a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Grogin is a self-taught mobile wildlife and macro photographer whose work is built around patience, field experience, and a willingness to see nature from an animal’s point of view. Instead of photographing from a comfortable distance, he often places his phone at ground level, near the waterline, or close to the forest floor. To achieve these angles while maintaining a respectful distance from his subjects, he uses tools such as an extendable selfie stick and a remote shutter, carefully positioning his Samsung S25 Ultra without disrupting the scene. Shooting in Samsung’s Expert RAW format allows him to then capture these scenes in the highest level of quality, which is almost indistinguishable from a professional camera.
Scroll down to see Steven’s incredible photography, and don’t forget to vote for your favorite images.
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#1 “Praying Mantis In The Heavens”
Description: “A praying mantis spreads its delicate wings against a bright, cloud-filled sky, revealing color and structure normally hidden in stillness. The upward view gives the insect a strange grace, as if it briefly became part of the heavens above it.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#2 “Bullfrog Between Worlds”
Description: “A bullfrog rests at the surface in a natural split-shot, with the wetland above and the underwater world visible below. The image turns the waterline into a living boundary, placing the amphibian between sky, reflection, and the hidden depth beneath it.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#3 “Ancient Gold”
Description: “The eye of a young alligator fills the frame like a relic from another age, every fold and scale etched in hard light. At this distance, the portrait feels less like a wildlife image and more like a glimpse into deep time.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#4 “Twin Embers”
Description: “A young alligator glides low across polished water, its amber eye echoed beneath the surface. Light and reflection compress the animal into an almost abstract portrait of swamp color and geometry.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#5 “White-Masked Sentinel”
Description: “A bald-faced hornet faces the lens head-on, its stark markings and dark eyes rendered in startling detail. The portrait transforms a tiny predator into something fierce, elegant, and unmistakably wild.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#6 “Eye At The Waterline”
Description: “A bullfrog drifts so near the lens that its gilded eye becomes both subject and horizon. The still surface doubles the moment, creating a portrait suspended between breath and glass.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#7 “Coils And Diamonds”
Description: “An eastern diamondback rattlesnake coils in open ground with its rattle raised and its attention fixed forward. The image balances warning and beauty in the same frame, showing the animal exactly as it stands its ground.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#8 “Tasting The Current”
Description: “A cottonmouth moves through dark water with its forked tongue extended, reading the world through scent and vibration. Reflection and ripples turn the moment into a quiet portrait of instinct at work.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#9 “Riding The Old Shell”
Description: “A young alligator rests atop the back of a turtle along a swamp log above reflective water. The moment feels almost mythical, a brief meeting of two ancient lineages sharing the same wetland world.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#10 “Mouth Of The South”
Description: “A wild Florida cottonmouth opens its mouth from the swamp floor, heavy-bodied and frozen, likely after a recent meal. The image turns a defensive moment into a close study of texture, tension, and survival.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#11 “Golden Watcher”
Description: “A young alligator’s eye rises just above the dark water and completes itself in a near-perfect reflection. The tight framing transforms a single glance into a study of symmetry, texture, and stillness.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#12 “Rising From The Pine Floor”
Description: “An eastern diamondback rattlesnake lifts from the pine forest floor, framed from below so its body becomes part of the landscape around it. The perspective gives the snake a monumental presence, elevating the encounter into something almost mythic.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#13 “Meadow Generations”
Description: “Two wild Baltimore checkerspot butterflies mate on a weathered branch in a Michigan meadow, while a caterpillar of the same species rests just below them. The frame brings two stages of one life cycle together in a single quiet moment of color, instinct, and continuity.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#14 “Tongue At The Open Door”
Description: “A wild Florida cottonmouth holds its mouth slightly open as its tongue flicks into the swamp air. The frozen gesture captures a split second of sensory awareness, where the snake seems to taste the world from the shadows of its own ground-level realm.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#15 “Cypress Mirror”
Description: “A wild alligator floats through a Florida cypress swamp, its eye and armored head mirrored across the dark surface. The low waterline view places the animal inside its ancient habitat, where trees, reflection, and scale seem to belong to the same quiet world.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#16 “Swampside Sovereign”
Description: “A wild frog rises from the muddy edge of a Michigan wetland, surrounded by green growth, dark water, and forest shade. From this low view, a familiar amphibian becomes a watchful presence inside its own hidden world.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#17 “Sunlit Divide”
Description: “A bullfrog rests at the waterline with its eye catching a flare of light, hovering between what lies above and below the surface. The scene turns a simple shoreline moment into a threshold between two worlds.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#18 “Evening Mirror”
Description: “A frog floats in warm, fading light, its eye and face echoed in softly glowing water. The quiet reflection turns the scene into something almost painterly.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#19 “Jousting For The Crown”
Description: “Two juvenile alligators joust for the top position on a larger juvenile’s head while gathered together on a log in a Florida swamp. The scene captures a playful-looking struggle for space and status among young predators, surrounded by warm light, water, and wild texture.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#20 “Stacked In Stillness”
Description: “One alligator settles over another in a quiet arrangement of scales, bone, and sunlight beneath the trees. The layered pose gives the scene the feeling of a portrait shaped as much by calm as by form.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#21 “Reflections Of A Young Gator”
Description: “A young alligator rides low enough in the water for its profile to complete itself below the surface. The clean mirror and measured light give the portrait a calm, sculptural grace.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#22 “Hover Of The Mimic”
Description: “A clearwing hummingbird moth floats above the meadow, suspended between insect and illusion. Captured in midair, it feels like one of the field’s brief miracles held still for a moment.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#23 “On Her Brow”
Description: “A baby alligator rests across its mother’s head as both lie quietly along the swamp edge in morning light. The gesture feels almost tender, revealing a softer side of wild Florida through closeness and trust.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#24 “Blue Darter”
Description: “A dragonfly hangs in flight with its body suspended cleanly against open sky. The stillness of the frame makes motion feel almost impossible, as if the insect paused just long enough to be truly seen.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#25 “Monochrome Stare”
Description: “In black and white, a bullfrog rises from open water with only its eyes and crown breaking the surface. Stripped of color, the scene leans entirely on mood, shape, and silence.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#26 “Three On The Log”
Description: “Two small juveniles rest across the back of a larger juvenile, all three gathered together on a swamp log in the Florida light. Their arrangement feels both playful and oddly regal, like a young hierarchy written in scales.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
#27 “Shadow Through The Light”
Description: “A dragonfly crosses a bright opening in the clouds, its wings rendered in delicate silhouette. Backlight reduces the insect to pure form, turning a passing moment into a sign written against the sky.”
Image source: Steven Scott Grogin
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