Three mistakes, miscalculations, screw-ups – whatever you wanna call’em – caused me to partially mangle this unique opportunity with a Yellow-bellied Marmot cub climbing a fence.
Two days ago I paid another visit to the marmots I’ve been photographing recently. Earlier I reported that there were 5 young cubs in the litter but this time there were 6 of them out and about so I had many subjects to choose from. Too many and that was part of the problem.
I had my lens trained on this one when I heard Mia say something like “I think it’s going to climb the fence” so I knew I’d chosen the “wrong” subject for that particular moment (mistake #1) and quickly looked around to see if I could spot which of the 6 youngsters she was referring to.
It was this one and it did indeed look like it might be about to climb the fence. At this point it had one cute little paw on one strand of the fence and its mouth very near another strand as if it had been (or was about to be) chewing on it.
Then it looked upward as if it was planning its ascent up the fence.
When it stood up on its legs and began to stretch its body to full length I knew I was in trouble for several reasons: I still had my teleconverter attached so I was having extreme difficulty keeping the lengthening marmot in frame vertically and…
in my haste to get “him” in frame in time I didn’t have my lens level (mistake #2) after sliding it across the “noodle” on my pickup window and acquiring him in my viewfinder.
In the previous images, before he’d stretched, I had enough room in the frame to rotate the images during processing and get the fence level. But now I didn’t so I couldn’t level the image during processing without cutting off part of the marmot (leveling an image requires us to crop out parts of the photo). The result was tilted photos that were still too tight in the frame.
Because I could barely keep him in frame shooting horizontally I chose this moment, just as he was lifting his right foot to climb the fence, to rotate my camera and shoot vertically (mistake #3). Photographers know how difficult it can be to relocate a subject in the viewfinder (especially when shooting with a long lens) after rotating our gear and it probably took me about 3 seconds to accomplish it.
By that time he had already climbed a short distance up the fence, dropped down off of it and…
given up on his fence climbing efforts. Yes, I was upset. In this shot I thought he appeared to be mocking me for being too slow and clumsy.
I missed the very best shots and some of them could have been spectacular as he negotiated the fence and then dropped down off of it. I’ve never before seen a rodent of any species climbing a fence and I may never see it again so missing this opportunity was both distressing and painful.
As a dear cousin often used to say in similar situations I “screwed the pooch”! Perhaps you had to grow up in Montana to appreciate that quaint phrase but for this old Montana farm boy those were the exact words that came to mind.
You can take the boy out of Montana but…
Ron
Note: In each information source I referenced the maximum number of Yellow-bellied cubs in a litter was listed as 5 so perhaps this was an unusually large one.
It looks as though he could crawl through the fence. Wonder if he was contemplating climbing it just to see the view at the top. Your first and last photos show an interesting difference in facial markings around the eyes of the two pups.
I understand your frustration but I found the the photos and story quite fun.
Who knows what he was thinking, Lyle. Perhaps he was only exploring his relatively new world and his own capabilities. They seem to do a lot of both.
What an amazing sight to see. And how I love the photos of the experience that you and Mia have shared.
Yes I do understand the pain, the frustration and the disappointment with the missed shots.
However.
Were you as hard on your students as you are on your self? If the answer is yes I will be gob and smacked, flabber and ghasted.
Nope, I wasn’t, EC. There are more effective techniques to use on them, that’s for sure.
And on yourself.
A great series…and nobody would have known what we’d missed had you not told us. So is it time for you to go back and re-listen to that DeWitt Jones TED Talk?
Ha, probably, James. How soon I need reminding!
SoCal girls use the phrase in both directions too. 😉 Definitely an entry in your “one that got away” file, dammit! This seems to be an unusual bunch, so hopefully they’ll continue to behave un-marmot-like and you can catch some cool shots in the future.
I’ve always wondered too, do you and Mia ever get a bit competitive over certain shots? (you don’t have to answer that.)
Nope, we don’t, Marty. If one of us sees something interesting about to happen we always tell the other one about it. That’s just one example.
Competition wouldn’t be a comfortable environment in the confines of my pickup for many hours on end… 🙂
Perhaps competitive wasn’t a good word choice. Better to ask, do you two ever compare shots (the good, the bad, and the ugly)?
Yes, sometimes we do. We often find the comparison between what each of is able to get (or not get) quite interesting. For this session with the marmots the comparison was a painful one for me! 🙂
Love the photos even with your ‘imperfections’! What a delightful creature…even if considered a ‘varmint’ by some as the ’13-lined Ground Squirrel’ is here. I guess we who photograph nature have a different perspective of what we see. Looking at the Marmot’s face it’s as if he is pondering ‘Can I make it up there?’ Enjoyed this series!
Thank you, Cathy. Yes, “varmint” is a matter of definition. Personally I think it applies more accurately to those on the other end of the guns.
Your “mistakes” are my gifts ❗️My favorite is the fifth one. A couple more pull ups and I’m done ❗️
I was also wondering who Mia was😜
Enjoy your day
Thanks, Diana. Several of the shots looked like it was doing pull-ups.
Ron, so good to see a photographer of your talents making mistakes or having bad days. So often when you are our looking to photograph wildlife you miss something you should not have, or you watch an eagle for an hour hoping he or she will move, and then of course the instant you give up, off they go. And then camera mistakes – I once took 29 shots of a beautiful Common Black Hawk who posed for me the entire time. Only when I got home and put them on the screen did I realize that in my haste I never was fully focused. Since I am a new subscriber to your website – may I ask, who is Mia?
Everett Sanborn
Prescott AZ
“so good to see a photographer of your talents making mistakes or having bad days”
Believe me, Everett – I have more than my share of those days!
Mia is a very good friend who’s usually shooting with me.
Certain missed shots haunt…I hope that isn’t one for you…
I’m afraid it is, Patty. I’ll get over it but…
Very interesting series of a very unexpected behavior…angle of fence being off didn’t bother me as fences are not always horizontal…wondered if he was chewing on wire to taste it, to try it, to make a passageway, because he thought it was a vine and possibly edible. Missing the actual “on the wire climbing shot” must REALLY hurt!!! How often would anyone capture that!!!
“wondered if he was chewing on wire to taste it, to try it, to make a passageway, because he thought it was a vine and possibly edible”
I’ll add to that list, Patty. At the time I wondered if he was considering pulling himself up the fence with his teeth.
Wonderful series Ron! Thanks for sharing!
Charlotte
Thank you, Charlotte.
I also understand your frustration, but since we can’t see what you missed, just what you say you missed, I for one, like the images that you did come up with.
The past post and this post show the pups in good shape, suggesting that the whole family is doing well.
Wish there was a way you could hold up some of these snow, ice, rain storms, its not going to abate here till Saturday. Agh! I already have enough pictures of ice and snow.
However, we do have a male Robin that keeps singing every morning except this morning – first one he’s missed.
Dick, so far all the pups seem to be thriving but I’m very worried that some low-brow with a gun will blow them away. Around here marmots are considered to be varmints.
If they all survive for a while it’ll likely be because some of those gun-crazies know very well about the dangers of ricochet. These cubs live in a huge limestone rock pile and shooting them could very possibly cause ricochet to make the shooter (or his vehicle) pay a steep price for their “fun”…
So, this family isn’t on protected land? If that is the case, what a shame. Here’s hoping that all crazies miss and cause damage ONLY to their car, truck or themselves.
Nope, the rock pile is between a remote road and the fence and the other side of the fence is private land. It’s illegal to shoot from or across a road which is what they’d have to do to shoot them but little legal niceties like that don’t mean a damn thing to many of those folks.
Nice series! Loved looking at that cute critter regardless of the small imperfections of the individual photos. Thanks.
Thanks for salving my ego, Joanne. I like the photos but the problem is I know what I missed. And I’m greedy…
Works…………….
🙂
Zaphir had a picture there that I was replying to – now it’s gone????
to clarify – a picture of him by his name……….
Judy, Zaph signed up for gravatar (photo thumbnail of himself) and it didn’t show up in his first comment so he messaged me to ask if he could post a “test” using another email address. I agreed and told him I’d delete it immediately after we knew. That’s what I did but you must have posted your “works” comment while I was deleting it. Just bad timing I guess but it’s no biggie…
That’s the “nice” way of putting it! 😉 Phrase in both forms still very much used in some circles tho mainly more of a certain age that others…..;) I can fully understand your “angst” in that situation. 🙁 Still love the cub trying to climb the fence…… 🙂 He appears to understand what needs to happen for sure.
Ha, I figured you’d be very familiar with that phrase, Judy. In “polite company” some folks transpose it to “pooched the screw” … 🙂
And….if you took the time to ditch the TC, you might have come back with zip. We’ve all been there and rolled the dice (either way). I like the photos and the little bit of missing foot doesn’t take away from the impact of the photo. Yes, I know it’s not perfect, but all things considered…still a great photo 🙂
“if you took the time to ditch the TC, you might have come back with zip”
Zaph, That was EXACTLY what was going through my mind the entire time I was photographing this sequence! Should I or shouldn’t I…?
I’m glad I got what I did but I know what I missed and that really hurts.