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Curiosity

Mount St. Helens National Monument, Washington State

 

Next to poor lighting, the bane of photographers is laziness. The pursuit of images which exceed mere adequacy requires effort . . . and a little foresight doesn't hurt either. In this particular, as I prepared to set out on a short hike, I hesitated--bring my camera bag, or just my camera? Of course, I chose the latter. And so, I began my hike, armed with my Nikon D810 and a 35mm lens.

 

One-half mile later and I was ruing my decision.

 

I'd seen--and photographed--mountain goats before but had never had such a close encounter. Twenty feet, and all I had was a 35mm. They were SO close that the 35mm wasn't absolutely terrible, but the 50mm would have been much superior (and no doubt would have used the 70-300mm lens as well).

 

Oh well.

 

Of course, even had I had the requisite lens, this would not have been ideal. Better would have been to capture these beasts on a steep ridge with the entire volcano in view. That would have required a lot of time and patience to find such a moment. But insufficient patience is but one reason I will never be a great wildlife photographer. :-)

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Uploaded on November 6, 2022
Taken on June 7, 2022