"Like a Boss"
By: Micheal Lee (Janesville, CA)
On this late November morning I took a morning drive near my Janesville, California home. My original plan to visit a local wildlife area didn’t pan out, so I just drove the country roads for a bit in the morning light. As usual, I saw lots of raptors on power poles, including one beautiful 4-year-old bald eagle, but I have a few thousand more power pole shots than I could ever need, so I was basically on my way home when this beautiful mule deer buck (Odocoileus hemionus) almost committed suicide on the grill of my pickup when he jumped out of the ditch right in front of me. Luckily, I had just swapped out the brakes and the road wasn’t icy! Once I got stopped and hadn’t hit him, I went into photo mode. He was very much camera-shy though and disappeared into heavy sagebrush before I could get a decent shot. I was able to see his antlers bobbing in the bushes for a time and noted the direction he was headed. I went down to the next crossroad in that direction and set up about in line with where I hoped he’d emerge in a bit, and about 10 minutes later he actually obliged! The ambient air temperature was 27 degrees F and we were sitting right on the dew point, so his breath was quite visible, especially backlit as it was when he came into view. I grabbed this frame when he stepped up on a little ridge to observe and decide whether or not the goofy-looking guy in the pickup was going to try to run him over again before deciding to go back to grazing.
Camera Information: Canon R7 - Canon EF100-400II +1.4XIII
Image Location: Janesville California
Category: Live Wildlife
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