Last Yosemite pic of the year for me...

Thwack

I took one last quick trip to Yosemite today to see if any of the snow from earlier in the week was still hanging around. It must've been a bit warm the last couple of days because the valley floor was kind of mushy and slushy.

There were some nice sights to behold of course but very little grabbed my attention....except, just as we pulled up to the entrace gate, I spotted this guy off the side of the road searching for a mid-day snack:



I shot a burst of three pics just as he lifted his head and one of the three had him staring right at me.

The last time I saw a coyote at Yosemite, it was following the scent of something and wouldn't hold still enough to get a shot off. This one was moving at a much better pace and was right at the edge of the road. Used the back of my truck as a "tripod" rather than risk losing time setting up a real one. I got a handful of shots off before he scurried off.

I won't have another chance to get back there until at least next year.

Andy

Maestro

Beautiful! Looks like you startled it.

Thwack

No animals were startled in the making of these pictures.

He was moving at a casual/inquisitive pace. The next pic in the series has him looking back over his shoulder. It's a decent shot but didn't match the head-on (love those eyes!) view. Here's the over-the-shoulder view:

dbaker1221

great shot

ian408

sweet!

pulpmojo

that's awesome, what I would do to get a shot like that...

kdog

Great coyote shots, Thwack! Good exposure and focus. Great job. How incredibly lucky to get that close to a coyote. Good thing you were prepared for the shot.

Regards,
-joel

Harryb

Excellent capture.

Ristyz

Those 'yotes sure keep getting more and more bold about the hours they keep! I saw one midday recently too but didn't get to shoot. (in my car going too fast)

Great capture! .... and yes, those eyes!

Thwack

I got really lucky with that one. He was right at the side of the road, right by the entrance along Hwy 120, and there was a great pull-over spot just inside the gate so I could park quickly, whip out the camera, hop out of the truck and shoot.

I almost always take a few shots before checking when I'm surprised by a shooting opportunity. This may be the first time I checked the major settings before wasting the first few shots with whatever settings I last used (which never seem to be right for the shot at hand).

Thanks for the kind words everybody.

Thwack

In the process of re-arranging my galleries, I accidentally killed the shots used in this thread (and just now discovered they were missing). I edited both of my photo-posts to point to the correct pictures once again.