Everything Happens for a Reason

There was a problem at work which I decided to stick around for; I won't go into details, but instead of leaving at 6PM I got out at about 6:30. I hopped in Matilda and found a song to listen to, Get Rhythm, and started by drive home. Now, it's only a 20 minute walk to work, so some people may say, but I drive a mile east and then a mile or so west and I'm at work because I have to jump on a different road.

I take that drive and leave early for work everyday just in case some sorta fella my just be hopping, grazing, chilling out on the side of the road. So I take care of this situation at work and drive for about a mile right where I need to turn and there is a Canine right on the road. I immediately hope for a wolf, but to my demise it was a coyote. Regardless, I grabbed my camera and started shooting through the dirty cracked windshield of Matilda since it was 30 feet in front of me. It ventured off into an open field and I thought to myself, I kind of already have "Coyote" pictures, and drove down and there was a pull out right there. There was light and not another person for at least a mile, so I pulled over and started lining things up and getting the right settings and while doing this it was hunting.

I've seen coyotes and foxes hunt before in the winter time. They look down at the ground and listen. Then when they hear what it is they're looking for they jump up and pounce from above like a tiger. Except this time was different. I have never seen them hunt like this in an open field. It was a true nature experience. Sure I wasn't off the road but there I was watching this coyote hunt for its dinner and two cars drove by and they didn't even stop or slow down to see what I was looking at. You might assume they could see it but when I turned around to see the car, I could only find the coyote in my lens and not with the naked eye; it camouflaged very well.

While paying attention to Wild E Coyote, I focused on him and not the surrounding area. I talked to one of Yellowstone's most notable photographers, Tom Murphy, while working in Mammoth and he had the free time to look over some of my photos I carry on my phone, and I remembered what he said about the photos and what I need to do to make them appeal more to people. One thing he said stuck out referring to wildlife. "All wildlife doesn't need to be zoomed in, some people like to see the action in the animal, Whether it be an animal walking from left to right, leave more area in the picture to show where the animal is going, no one cares where it was." <--That's a paraphrase but pretty accurate.

So while shooting these pictures I was zooming in and out and trying to find out how I wanted to remember this and then it hopped again and again and I missed it. So that's when I focused on the coyote and finally saw the rest of the picture with the steam coming off the thermal areas and was just hoping for another hop.

Sure enough it hopped two more times and I got the take off of each one but only the landing of one. I'm not sure how that happened since I had a fast shutter speed but I hope next time he's a little closer and I'll have down right. But if I didn't care about my job and left when I was suppose to, I would have missed out on this photo op. I have to say my life is working out pretty well.

Thank you all for reading and as always, enjoy the pictures. (I tried to get them all cropped in the same picture but they're off just a little bit and it looks blurry; NEXT TIME I'll use a tripod!)

Once again, clicking on the photos will give you the gallery where you perhaps see the action if you flip through them fast enough!