My First River Otter

Last week I was photographing an Osprey family and having the time of my life!

Those who know me well will contend that I am not the most patient person in the universe. As a matter of fact, some say that I am rather impatient and a few will even say I am the most impatient person they ever met! Okay, so I can be a little impatient at times–I confess. However, put an animal in front of my camera and meĀ  and I can patiently photograph the animal for a very, very long time–all day in fact.

So, there I was, patiently photographing this osprey family, when I saw movement in the water below me. At first I assumed it was another turtle because I spotted several of them before this. This was not a turtle. I immediately saw it was brown and furry and it was a river otter. Fortunately, I was quick to point the camera on my tripod in the river otter’s direction and snapped a few photos. It was over just as quickly as it began. I photographed my very first river otter!

My fear was that I made a mistake during this small window of photographic opportunity. Was the otter fully in focus? Did I get the exposure correct before I clicked the shutter release? Even by looking at the LCD panel on the back of camera was not very helpful in answering these questions because the sunlight was so bright. I just had to wait to see the images later on my computer screen.

These three photos answer the questions I asked myself and are the first three photographs of river otterĀ  in my widening wildlife photography gallery.