shelly
Snapping Turtle
As I headed out to take my photo of the day this evening, I was in a race against time as the sun was setting fast and it was shaping up to be a grand sunset at that. Venturing out onto highway 19 just outside of Waunakee I saw a rather large lump in the road, I swerved to avoid it as to not to cause any damage to my car. But as I looked in my rear view mirror I saw that the lump was slowing moving and had four legs sticking out of it's sides. As it turns out others driving behind me were swerving around the mysterious creature, so being the curious person that I am; I found the nearest spot to pull over and crossed the highway by foot to get a closer look. Once on the other side of the road, I immediately knew what it was A SNAPPING TURTLE! bigger in size then a basketball with claws the size of my fingers. I will admit I was a bit intimidated at first, but as I got closer to the moving reptile I realized she just wanted to get across the road. I kept my eyes peeled to the traffic so I wouldn't become a piece of roadkill, people gave a variety of funny looks as I stood aside the massive turtle. I got a few thumbs up and a few horns, but most were just dumbfounded as to why a guy would be standing in the road next to the turtle. When the traffic let up, I made a break for it and walked into the middle of the highway and picked her up...she had to weigh a good twenty pounds; as I carried the beast across she attempted to snap at me quite viciously and put out a musky odor which transferred to my hands. Once to the other side I let her down slowly and just stood there observing one of natures more misunderstood creatures. Using her mid section as a turntable she followed my moves across the pavement, so I got down on my stomach and put on my 18mm. This lens has nice close focus abilities and I was able to get about 3" away without being snapped at, so I snapped a few photos and knew I had a picture to tell the story you are now reading. I stood up, flicked a few ticks off my hands and back and was on my way. No sunset in camera but much better memory to be had.
18mm 3.5 AI-S
f5.6 1/250
ISO800
shelly
Snapping Turtle
As I headed out to take my photo of the day this evening, I was in a race against time as the sun was setting fast and it was shaping up to be a grand sunset at that. Venturing out onto highway 19 just outside of Waunakee I saw a rather large lump in the road, I swerved to avoid it as to not to cause any damage to my car. But as I looked in my rear view mirror I saw that the lump was slowing moving and had four legs sticking out of it's sides. As it turns out others driving behind me were swerving around the mysterious creature, so being the curious person that I am; I found the nearest spot to pull over and crossed the highway by foot to get a closer look. Once on the other side of the road, I immediately knew what it was A SNAPPING TURTLE! bigger in size then a basketball with claws the size of my fingers. I will admit I was a bit intimidated at first, but as I got closer to the moving reptile I realized she just wanted to get across the road. I kept my eyes peeled to the traffic so I wouldn't become a piece of roadkill, people gave a variety of funny looks as I stood aside the massive turtle. I got a few thumbs up and a few horns, but most were just dumbfounded as to why a guy would be standing in the road next to the turtle. When the traffic let up, I made a break for it and walked into the middle of the highway and picked her up...she had to weigh a good twenty pounds; as I carried the beast across she attempted to snap at me quite viciously and put out a musky odor which transferred to my hands. Once to the other side I let her down slowly and just stood there observing one of natures more misunderstood creatures. Using her mid section as a turntable she followed my moves across the pavement, so I got down on my stomach and put on my 18mm. This lens has nice close focus abilities and I was able to get about 3" away without being snapped at, so I snapped a few photos and knew I had a picture to tell the story you are now reading. I stood up, flicked a few ticks off my hands and back and was on my way. No sunset in camera but much better memory to be had.
18mm 3.5 AI-S
f5.6 1/250
ISO800