Marty’s photo of the day #4683: Yesterday Deb (wife), Nellie (dog), and I were on our evening walk, following the border of the Essen Wildlife Refuge. Nine out of ten times, Nellie will see wildlife before either Deb or I do, but she was off in a different direction when I spotted this big moose lying in our path. The moose stood, and I quickly gathered up Nellie. It was in almost the same spot last fall when a female moose charged the three of us. With that memory fresh in our brains, we backtracked back to the house. There I grabbed my big camera, left Nellie (complaining at the top of her lungs), and headed back to the moose.
Unfortunately, the moose was among some thick trees, and I forgot that I had set my camera on continuous focus, for running shots of Nellie in open space. Continuous focus is great for open areas and lousy for capturing animal shots among thick trees (because it tends to focus on the tree branches instead of the animal). Consequently, none of the moose shots I got yesterday were up to my usual quality standard. I’m posting this one anyway, because I have to pay tribute to the first verified moose visit of 2024. I will be out looking for the moose again today, with the camera settings preset to “moose.”