I was up on Trail Ridge Road at Rock Cut. Pika were everywhere, gathering grass to stash away for the long winter. They have about about 3 or 4 months to gather enough food to last through an 8 or 9 month long winter. This was the only pika gathering flowers.
This pika was so erratic and fast in its movements that autofocus was worthless and manually focusing the lens to follow along was even more futile. What saved me was this pika had a favorite rock. About every 4th trip it would stop on the same rock, pause for a brief moment and then dash off to its burrow.
So I manually focused on the pika’s favorite rock and every time it stopped there I would click the shutter. Most of the photos were still blurred because it would stop on different places on the rock. But this photo turned out great. The pika stopped right where I had pre-focused. This is one of my favorite wildlife images and one of my two most favorite photos for this date.
Tiana, Columbus Ohio. July 20, 2008.
Not only is Tiana an exceptionally fine model, she is also a first rate photographer behind the camera. We had a great day shooting in two cities, doing location work and studio images. This is one of my most favorite images, and it is my other most favorite photo for July 20. If you have been following this series, you saw Tiana five days ago.
Links
Series: Favorite Photos by Date – all about this series
Favorite Photo, July 15 – Tiana