Kat Daley, a 22-year-old graduating from McNeese State University, decided to skip the standard campus background for her senior portraits. Instead, she chose to pose knee-deep in water alongside Big Al, a massive, 14-foot alligator.

While the photos look completely terrifying to the average viewer, Kat wasn’t scared at all. She has been working in wildlife rehab since she was 7 years old and spends her days running Gator Country in Beaumont, Texas, alongside her fiancé, Eddie.

“I really wanted to highlight what I do with these animals every day and what they mean to me. Reptiles are demonized in the media a lot more than they need to be... When people don’t interfere with those wild animals, they aren’t gonna interfere with us.”

— Kat Daley to The New York Post