Wildlife in Photography

One thing I’d previously mentioned in July was a raccoon that was added to my “would-be-ideal-if-I-had-had-a-camera-on-me” list. While that’s true to a certain extent, it’s not the full story.

One late afternoon, as I was relaxing at a picnic table in Alexandria, I caught motion out of the corner of my eye about 10 feet away that I took for a cat. Once I turned, though, I saw a raccoon pausing to glance at me. I love raccoons, but when I wasn’t expecting one (much less in daylight) it freaked me out and I slowly began to back away. As I did, he ascended a nearby tree and stopped for nearly 30 seconds in the PERFECT place for a beautiful portrait composition. It absolutely killed me to see that and not be able to photograph it. That moment, as his beady little eyes stared at me, was the missed opportunity in my previous post, but I still see it as a wonderful mental picture.

I was eventually able to grab my camera, return and fire off a few frames. So while I never did get that “perfect” shot, I still was able to record part of the encounter.

Finding a pair of raccoons in Shenandoah National Park took months. In Alexandria, one found me.