C&T Publications Eye on Fine Art Photography - July 2014 | Page 21

After they got used to us the puppies began scampering around the trees and through the water, testing the skills of the defensive line
of volunteers. At three months old, any escapee was easily scooped up and carried back to the "preferred" area.
For the next hour they just couldn't stay still and were incredibly hard to photograph. They squabbled, they argued, they snapped at
each other. They ran through the nearby woods, splashed around in the water and they were retrieved by volunteers dozens of times.
So far all my photos were blurry shapes with tails.
Gradually though, they slowed down. They found some old bones and settled down to have a chew and that's when I got most of my
photos. I was pretty much lying in the swamp by then, a swamp which I suspect was an outdoor bathroom for a variety of forest-type
critters.
After we got our wolf photos the volunteers took the wolves away and came back with some tiny raccoon kits. They were incredibly
cute and much easier to photograph. After about 20 minutes it was all over and we headed back to the farm.
I was soaked from the neck down, stank up the place pretty good, but pretty happy I spent the money. I was unaware of a creepy,
swampy hitch-hiker who had found its way into my jacket.
I got home, hung up my jacket and watched in horror as the biggest spider I ever saw, climbed down the sleeve and dropped onto the
kitchen floor.
Now, I don't mind mice or rats, I am fairly ambivalent about most everything that crawls like snakes and cockroaches as long as they
go one way and I go another....but swampy, creepy spiders as big as my fist are a deal breaker.
Of course I erupted into hysterics. Big burly not-afraid-of-anything husband came running. He saw the spider and went a strange
grey color, said something unprintable and called the pest guy.
Pest Guy came and found Mr Spider and took him to a happy place somewhere away from me. Don't think me and swamps were
meant for each other.
amandastadther.com

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