Jeff Engelhardt
"I think he wants something"
As luck would have it, when we were driving down the road away from the Paradise parking lot at Mt. Rainier, a red fox dashed across the road about 40 feet in front of us. I immediately came to a stop and grabbed my camera out of the center console and told Hilary I was going to try to get a picture. Realizing I had my 50mm on, I grabbed the 85 (the longest I had with me) and began to switch them. As I was just getting the 85 ring into the mount on the camera, Hilary said "Uh, Jeff . . . I think he wants something . . look to your right . . . "
In somewhere around the 7-8 seconds it took me to slam on the brakes and unmount one lens, this guy had covered 40-odd feet of deep snow drifts and was staring at me from not more than 10 feet away. Really a reminder of what amazing wild creatures these are (and how dangerous the larger ones can be if they suspect that *you* are the food).
At the same time, pretty sad - because clearly he's been getting a lot of handouts from people . . . not a healthy thing for a wild animal to rely on (let alone the quality of the food they're probably being given). I acknowledge that what is now my best and luckiest series of wildlife shots is due to this practice, but I sure would rather have earned it.
"I think he wants something"
As luck would have it, when we were driving down the road away from the Paradise parking lot at Mt. Rainier, a red fox dashed across the road about 40 feet in front of us. I immediately came to a stop and grabbed my camera out of the center console and told Hilary I was going to try to get a picture. Realizing I had my 50mm on, I grabbed the 85 (the longest I had with me) and began to switch them. As I was just getting the 85 ring into the mount on the camera, Hilary said "Uh, Jeff . . . I think he wants something . . look to your right . . . "
In somewhere around the 7-8 seconds it took me to slam on the brakes and unmount one lens, this guy had covered 40-odd feet of deep snow drifts and was staring at me from not more than 10 feet away. Really a reminder of what amazing wild creatures these are (and how dangerous the larger ones can be if they suspect that *you* are the food).
At the same time, pretty sad - because clearly he's been getting a lot of handouts from people . . . not a healthy thing for a wild animal to rely on (let alone the quality of the food they're probably being given). I acknowledge that what is now my best and luckiest series of wildlife shots is due to this practice, but I sure would rather have earned it.