my first decent capture

[big baldo]

Hey all, this is my first time posting a picture.If you only knew what I had to go through to get this picture!! Any tips would be appreciated, for I am still a beginner.
John

[paulnj]

otters are very curious animals, but I have come to realise they are leary of humans. So I say you did a great job here!!!
Where do you live anyway(southern US obviously from that habitat)

[Old Timer]

Very nice first post. Hope you keep after them critters with your camera and show us more.

[OBie]

Very cute otter picture - I'm sure it took tons of patience and bad shots to get it!

[Bevb]

Great capture! in great surroundings.

[big baldo]

Thanks for all of your comments.I live in Geneva Florida on the St. Johns river. When my wife and I moved here, the only camera I had was a point and shoot.After observing 2 adult and 3 juvenile bald eagles playing on our beach, I soon realized that I had to have a good DSLR. The wildlife and scenery here is absolutely amazing! If anyone is in the central Florida area,I would be glad to "give a river tour" and maybe you could share some tips!:thumbsup: Let me know if anyone interested.I hopefully will post more as they come (missed a pileated woodpecker this A.M.:mad2: )
Thanks again
John

[Copy_Kot]

I've only seen one in the wild in 38 years... nice catch!

[Loupey]

Big B, welcome to PR and great first post :thumbsup:

I would like to hear what you went through to get this shot. Also, is that a den hole in the background?

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on that one. Do you have a website? I can only imagine what all you come across there. Quite different from the small patches of woods within the city that I'm used to.

[big baldo]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. This website has helped me in so many ways.
Today I ordered the Nikon 70-300 vr lense to help bring me closer to the critters. I think now I officially have the "lense envy bug".

Loupy, the story behind the otter, if it was on video, could have won me some money! My wife and I were in our pontoon boat going up a tributary called Deep Creek. This "creek" basically runs through a cypress swamp. We often see manatees, gators and tons of birds.At first we thought that it was a manatee but it turned out to be this little guy.He was swimming in front of us, then headed on land.(this is where the fun started).
I told my wife to pull over to the shore so I could get out and get some better shots.I thought that I would be stepping on solid ground, but it was actually 2 foot of swamp mud! Not to be deterred, I trudged through,lost both shoes, covered myself in stinky mud and FINALLY caught up to this guy. I quickly snapped about 20 or so pictures.Right after I took this photo he started chattering and made a charge for me!!! Back through the stinky mud, forget the shoes, dive on the boat and we laughed all the way home!!!!
I believe that he/she was protecting something, hence the aggresive behavior.(maybe some baby pics soon?)
Here is a pic of a oak tree growing through a cypress which kid of gives you an idea of the terrain.
John