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Quote:
"I was 100+ feet back down the road with the tripod as low as it would go, laying on my side in the on-coming lane hoping not to get run over."
Posted by wconley.
Yeah, I have a little experience with settin' up shots and feeling vulnerable. Many years ago (decades) I was into a lot of outdoor photography: mostly long lens shots of various migratory birds (and the occasional raptor) and, at the other end of the spectrum, short close-ups.
In the latter category, very early one spring morning I was out in some field in NE Kansas, framing a shot of some flower with dew on it or something, fiddling around with my macro lens, a shutter release cable, a tripod with the legs clicked way up so the camera would be well supported a few inches off the ground, maybe some extension tubing, and probably a couple other items as well. I was concentrating on camera settings (a film-SLR, of course, Kodachrome 64 as I recall), really engrossed in what I was doing. For whatever reason, I suddenly looked up and there, about 5 feet away from me was a full-sized buck staring down at me.
I froze, just watched him without moving, hardly breathing. He tried to figure me out, what I was doin', WHAT I WAS maybe, me just half laying there like a statue. He even stomped the ground a little with his front hoof, trying (apparently) to see if I'd react. I didn't. Finally he snorted one or twice, turned and just sort of sauntered off.
Funny, but while it was happening I didn't even feel particularly nervous. (I even recall thinking about trying to point the camera in his direction, but of course I had all the wrong attachments on it---I couldn't have focused on anything more than a few inches away from me.) It wasn't until he was gone that I began to realize how scared I should have been. He most certainly could have done a number on me had he decided to go that route. I guess ultimately he decided I wasn't a threat and just left.
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