Do you ever feel like you are being watched? This week I was fixing some motion sensor lights out on the back deck when I heard some rustling coming from my neighbour's property. I went over to the edge of the deck to say hello, but nobody was there. Yet I had the sense that someone - or something - was watching me.

It turned out to be a rather large raccoon, with four smaller ones close by. By the time I got my camera the large one had wandered off to another tree, but the four smaller ones were still playing around and trying to come down out of the tree that they were in. They were a little nervous with me around, but I stayed still long enough for one of them to be curious enough to take a good look at me.

This was a tricky photo to get, because the sun had gone down and it was so dark outside that the autofocus wouldn't work on my camera. I had to manually focus this shot, and because it was so dark I had to shoot with a wide aperture so I had no margin for error. I also had to shoot with a slow shutter speed, so I rested my elbows on the deck railing and used my arms as a tripod that way. At least I had my image stabilized lens to give me a little bit of help. Considering the difficulty, I'm quite happy with this photo.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + EF 70-300 IS at 300mm, ISO 6400, f/5.6 for 1/6th of a second.

Comments

I think raccoonskin coats should come back into style! Great photo considering
the conditions.