Treed Dog
Several weeks before this photo was taken, around the same time that I got my new canon 6D, I made a promise to myself: I would never again say "$*%&, I wish I had my camera!" Ever since that day, no matter how ridiculous I may look, I always have my camera on me. Having my camera on me doesn't do much good, however, if I am driving a car and focused on the road, so I walk, or bike if I am in a hurry, to most places within a few miles of my apartment or the University of Montana campus (where I currently work). Walking is the best method because you have a lot of opportunities to notice things that can otherwise be easily missed. As I mention in the "about me" section of this website, I am an assistant wrestling coach at Hellgate High School so I was walking from campus to the high school, meandering through the nice neighborhood that lay in-between them. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed this dog perched in a tree and immediately swung out my camera. All the while, I thought to myself, "there is no way that that dog is going to stay there long enough for me to get a picture." To my great fortune, the dog was fixated on the branch above it. I approached the fenced-in yard tenderly, so as not to scare the dog from its perch. It noticed me, and we gazed at each other for several seconds. Then, the dog returned its machine-like focus back to the branch. It was then that I realized that the dog had trapped a squirrel, and they were now engaged in backyard Mexican stand-off with one another. The dog refused to leave its perch; the squirrel refused to leave its branch; and I took as many photos from as many different angles as I could without trespassing.
As I decided to press on to the high school the dog and squirrel remained in deadlock. For all I know they could still be there to this day, both refusing to yield. I will have to go walk by that house again and check. Being out of place or acting strangely is a matter of perspective. Though somewhat unusual to me, this dog didn't seem to think that what it was doing was anything but necessary. I guess I feel the same way about toting around my camera, lenses, and tripod all the time: unusual to some but necessary for me.
-Patrick
As I decided to press on to the high school the dog and squirrel remained in deadlock. For all I know they could still be there to this day, both refusing to yield. I will have to go walk by that house again and check. Being out of place or acting strangely is a matter of perspective. Though somewhat unusual to me, this dog didn't seem to think that what it was doing was anything but necessary. I guess I feel the same way about toting around my camera, lenses, and tripod all the time: unusual to some but necessary for me.
-Patrick
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