My Darker Side

[Loupey]

We had dropped off my son and his friends at the threater and we were close to the local park so we decided to drop in before the visitor center closed.

I typically don't shoot wildlife this late in the day (around 8 o'clock) but thought I'd carry the camera with me anyway. At the rear of the visitor center is a large observation deck/overview and we saw two girls excitedly looking at something. As soon as we stepped out onto it, they turned around and shushed us. There was a raccoon nearby but it had scurried under the deck with all the attention he attracted. So I stood in the corner with my 300mm to see if it would come back out. It didn't take long before it came out (much larger and closer than I expected!). I didn't get a shot in the first encounter as it came out, turned around, stood up, and peeked from beneath the fence railing to see if anyone was on the deck. Then it saw me in the corner not 8' away and we both froze. He took off again below.

We did this dance about 4 times. I wanted to get a shot of him turning around and peeking so I retreated 20' back and laid down on the decking for shot #3.

Shots #1 and #3 at ISO 1600; shots #2 and #4 at ISO 1000. I was pleasantly surprised by the high ISO performance tonight.