gilpen123
Gil
Caption of Bryan Peterson nice encounter.
Luck or a "Chance Meeting"?
I often feel that I am a very lucky man, but ever since July 16th, I have felt especially lucky. As has often been said by many people, luck has much to do with being prepared when opportunity knocks but even on this particular day, something else beyond preparation and opportunity was at work.
My students and I had spent the better part of the day in Glacier National Park and were returning back towards Logan Pass where we pulled into the parking lot for a restroom break. A few minutes later, we spotted three Big Horn Sheep in the parking lot, (not an uncommon occurrence I might add) and not surprising several of the students became quite excited. Photographing Big Horn Sheep in a busy parking rarely qualifies as "compelling wildlife imagery" since the images one usually ends up with is a "Bighorn Sheep walking through a busy parking lot." Within ten minutes however, a surprising change began to take place as these same Bighorn Sheep began to stroll to the edge of the parking lot, near a small rock wall, where just beyond, a large meadow and pine trees grew. Beyond this meadow and pine trees, the massive mountains that Glacier is noted for, could be seen rising from the forest floor.
"What if one or several of these Big Horn Sheep jumped the short wall and into the meadow?" It wasn't more than ten seconds later when all three of them did just that. At this moment, I had only my Leica D-Lux 4 around my neck and I quickly raced back to the van and grabbed my Nikon D300S and 12-24mm lens . Returning to the small rock wall, my heart sank, as the three Rams had descended down the sloping meadow, and into the trees. If I was going to have any 'luck' at all, I would now need my 70-300mm zoom, hoping to fill the frame of one or several rams as they grazed in the meadow near the pine trees below.
Should I return to the van once again and get the telephoto zoom, or stay put "just in case" one or several of them decide to return up the sloping hill? My students could be seen clicking away with glee with their telephotos so why not join them? There was this little voice inside my head that seemed to shout, "Stay put!". So stay put I did, sitting myself down atop that small rock wall. What happened next is still, in my mind, beyond luck, and rather something along the lines that would make great fodder for a serious discussion on re-incarnation. Let me explain.
One of the rams peered out from behind a lone pine tree and began a slow trek up the sloping meadow. Soon and from a distance of about fifteen feet to my left and about ten feet down the sloping meadow, the ram meandered to his right, which put him on a path that would find him parallel to me. He didn't break his stride and within seconds that one ram was right in front of me, at a distance of only four feet, AND he actually placed both of his front feet upon a small rock out-cropping, as if to strike a pose!
So there I am, seated atop a small rock wall, the only one among us with a wide angle zoom on the camera, framing a ram in the foreground and the all-encompassing mountains of Glacier Park in the background (above, top left). I have never spoke the 'language' of Big Horn Sheep, yet there I was making a request of the ram, in a muffled voice, "You look really great Mr. Ram, so regal, so proud, but I need you to turn your head a bit towards me. This will allow me to get a small catch light in your eyes from the sunlight behind us AND if you turn your head towards me, I can also eliminate the subtle merger of one of your horns with the lone white and very dead pine tree in the background."
Those words no sooner left my mouth, when the ram seemed to express a kind of reluctant "Okay", (above, top right) and he began to turn his head to his right, (above, bottom left) until it was right where I wanted it. At that same moment, the sun, which had been dodging clouds, poked around a cloud and lit up his eye! I quickly fired off several more frames, (above, bottom right) with his head now clear of the merger and of course the subtle catch light in his eyes. And as one who is constantly preaching that the best time to shoot a vertical composition is right after you shoot the horizontal one, the ram even gave me the time necessary to do just that and it was during this quick sequence of vertical compositions (right) that the sun was totally clear of the clouds and this much warmer light cast its glow across the still proud ram. Several seconds later the ram turned around and quickly disappeared behind a stand of pine trees in the sloping meadow below.
As one who has always found the discussion of re-incarnation good entertainment, I am perhaps now a bit more open to the idea that some of us may just come back to earth as an animal. I've lost a few close friends early in my life and maybe, just maybe, I re-connected with one of them. It wasn't until just yesterday evening, when I returned to Chicago, that this encounter became a bit more eerie. The astrological sign of one of those friends was an Aries – and as you may know, the Ram is the symbol for Aries!
Luck or a "Chance Meeting"?
I often feel that I am a very lucky man, but ever since July 16th, I have felt especially lucky. As has often been said by many people, luck has much to do with being prepared when opportunity knocks but even on this particular day, something else beyond preparation and opportunity was at work.
My students and I had spent the better part of the day in Glacier National Park and were returning back towards Logan Pass where we pulled into the parking lot for a restroom break. A few minutes later, we spotted three Big Horn Sheep in the parking lot, (not an uncommon occurrence I might add) and not surprising several of the students became quite excited. Photographing Big Horn Sheep in a busy parking rarely qualifies as "compelling wildlife imagery" since the images one usually ends up with is a "Bighorn Sheep walking through a busy parking lot." Within ten minutes however, a surprising change began to take place as these same Bighorn Sheep began to stroll to the edge of the parking lot, near a small rock wall, where just beyond, a large meadow and pine trees grew. Beyond this meadow and pine trees, the massive mountains that Glacier is noted for, could be seen rising from the forest floor.
"What if one or several of these Big Horn Sheep jumped the short wall and into the meadow?" It wasn't more than ten seconds later when all three of them did just that. At this moment, I had only my Leica D-Lux 4 around my neck and I quickly raced back to the van and grabbed my Nikon D300S and 12-24mm lens . Returning to the small rock wall, my heart sank, as the three Rams had descended down the sloping meadow, and into the trees. If I was going to have any 'luck' at all, I would now need my 70-300mm zoom, hoping to fill the frame of one or several rams as they grazed in the meadow near the pine trees below.
Should I return to the van once again and get the telephoto zoom, or stay put "just in case" one or several of them decide to return up the sloping hill? My students could be seen clicking away with glee with their telephotos so why not join them? There was this little voice inside my head that seemed to shout, "Stay put!". So stay put I did, sitting myself down atop that small rock wall. What happened next is still, in my mind, beyond luck, and rather something along the lines that would make great fodder for a serious discussion on re-incarnation. Let me explain.
One of the rams peered out from behind a lone pine tree and began a slow trek up the sloping meadow. Soon and from a distance of about fifteen feet to my left and about ten feet down the sloping meadow, the ram meandered to his right, which put him on a path that would find him parallel to me. He didn't break his stride and within seconds that one ram was right in front of me, at a distance of only four feet, AND he actually placed both of his front feet upon a small rock out-cropping, as if to strike a pose!
So there I am, seated atop a small rock wall, the only one among us with a wide angle zoom on the camera, framing a ram in the foreground and the all-encompassing mountains of Glacier Park in the background (above, top left). I have never spoke the 'language' of Big Horn Sheep, yet there I was making a request of the ram, in a muffled voice, "You look really great Mr. Ram, so regal, so proud, but I need you to turn your head a bit towards me. This will allow me to get a small catch light in your eyes from the sunlight behind us AND if you turn your head towards me, I can also eliminate the subtle merger of one of your horns with the lone white and very dead pine tree in the background."
Those words no sooner left my mouth, when the ram seemed to express a kind of reluctant "Okay", (above, top right) and he began to turn his head to his right, (above, bottom left) until it was right where I wanted it. At that same moment, the sun, which had been dodging clouds, poked around a cloud and lit up his eye! I quickly fired off several more frames, (above, bottom right) with his head now clear of the merger and of course the subtle catch light in his eyes. And as one who is constantly preaching that the best time to shoot a vertical composition is right after you shoot the horizontal one, the ram even gave me the time necessary to do just that and it was during this quick sequence of vertical compositions (right) that the sun was totally clear of the clouds and this much warmer light cast its glow across the still proud ram. Several seconds later the ram turned around and quickly disappeared behind a stand of pine trees in the sloping meadow below.
As one who has always found the discussion of re-incarnation good entertainment, I am perhaps now a bit more open to the idea that some of us may just come back to earth as an animal. I've lost a few close friends early in my life and maybe, just maybe, I re-connected with one of them. It wasn't until just yesterday evening, when I returned to Chicago, that this encounter became a bit more eerie. The astrological sign of one of those friends was an Aries – and as you may know, the Ram is the symbol for Aries!
