Moonlight Foggy Night in Pownal & an Encounter with the Wild

My friend Chelsie called me Wednesday evening after teaching yoga at Unbreakables in Lisbon and said "have you seen the moon?" I hadn't noticed it because it takes a bit for the moon to show above the treetops at my house. I knew there was supposed to be two full moons in August, but I was still comprehending that August was nearly finished! I went outside and checked it out and sure enough, gorgeous. Because we had a rain shower at 6pm there was a nice layer of fog around. I was thinking "this is picture time!" But I wasn't going to take the photos at my house because while flapping my jaws with Chelsie a deer and I had a close call with a skunk behind my garage! I headed out to my favorite fields in Pownal with my dog Bella, my tripod, and my Nikon d850.  

There is a fun little spooky story I want to share with these next four images.

When pulling into this field, I saw many deer shadows with their heads turned towards my car. They must have quietly left for I didn't hear them but their shadows were gone. I figured they most might have liked me. But in hindsight maybe my reasoning was missing something. While walking back to the car with my dog Bella I thought some people might be too scared to be out here taking pictures, but I love it. The quietness and beauty is awesome. I thought, "What is out here but lots of deer anyway?" My thoughts had an answer shortly to be revealed.

This road right here, I love. I have done many shoots on this road. I have biked, ran, and rollerbladed here. I have created many memories and that night with an unexpected visitor, I created another.

This visitor appeared in one of the further shadows right before the fog. It’s accurate to presume my visitor was in frame, we just can’t see him. But he saw me.

Side note: When capturing nighttime landscapes I have my camera on a tripod and the camera is set to timer mode so there is no camera shake when the shutter releases. I had the shutter set to go off 5 times. I did not need it to go off five times for landscapes, but honestly I was too lazy to change it that night. The entire exposure series time to get one frame was around 25-30 seconds because of the delay, long exposures, and number of frames. I share this so you can know the length of time in which this is happening, and if you are a camera person, you night like this information.

I had the desire to shoot with the moon to my back, so I swiveled the tripod head around, still standing in the road. While the shots are going off, I see Bella in the back of the car. I knew this was my last shot and I didn't want to worry about her being in the road. With what I was about to encounter, I am glad she was in the car.

I liked the way my car looked and it is a part of the story. This is exactly how far from my car I was and soon to be moving swiftly to get into. So glad I had it left running for these road shots.

While the camera was going off, I turned and looked back down the road (see two shots up) and was staring at a new shadow in the middle of the road. This one is vertical where there was no vertical one before. I wondered how I knew this little shadow was different. And then I knew that it was. I stare at it and it is staring back. I felt it. It was to small to be a deer and deer stand with ears up, alert, afraid and ready to run in the opposite direction. This was different. I thought, it must be a coyote, but it was bigger than most coyotes I have seen. The shape was sneaking towards me, staying in shadows. For a split second, I wanted to stay and get a shot, but I am not used to things moving in this way towards me! I call out to Bella in the car--as if she could help?! I pick up my tripod before the last frames are done. I get in the car with windows down and back out onto Verrill Road. I see a big beautiful coyote now not far at all in front of my car and then he sneaks off the road out of sight.

I don't know if the coyote was hunting me. It felt like it was from its body language. But as curious as I am, I did not want to stick around and find out. Also I knew I was not in my territory and they had a real meal to get.

On a personal note. I am one who is conscious that we share this planet with other living creatures besides us humans. I think that has left many of our consciousness in day to day living. I think we have ourselves on our minds and not much else. I believe our connections to animals and nature can help us to feel alive and connected to life in a bigger way. I respect animals and appreciate living in an area where I am reminded that there are more than just people, developments and to do lists. As spooky as it was to have this coyote curious about me and warning me to exit his land, it was and is also awesome.