A “coolage” of two shots. Greater Roadrunner. Bosque del Apache, NWR, Socorro, NM

This frumpy looking Roadrunner sat beside the road at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro New Mexico one early overcast morning…looking cold and just slightly miserable. I rolled down the window and switched off the car for some shots. The roadrunner did not seem to mind, until a pick-up coming up behind me drove between me and the roadrunner. What? I was leaning out the window with the camera. The bird was right there on the side of the road in plain sight. What was the guy thinking? It was another photographer too, with his big lens balanced on the dash in front of him. Of course the bird flushed…stood up tall the way roadrunners do, and scuttled off into the brush at the side of the road to be seen no more. There is a moral to this story. As a photographer I try to be as considerate of other photographers, birders, and just plain people as possible (not to mention the wildlife). It is always a privilege to see something photoworthy, and I know I do not “own” that privilege. It is not mine, and I want to share it with others. So I try not to get in anyone’s way…even if it means loosing the shot. I can only wish that other photographers were as courteous. Photographers sometimes have a bad reputation among the birding community, and among the public at large, for pushing in to get the shot, no matter the cost to others’ enjoyment of the moment. Some seem to feel that the investment in camera and lens gives them the right to be pushy. Some seen to have no sense of boundaries…pushing not only in front of others, but also so close to the wildlife that it flushes. Of course, to moderate my protest, I was parked in the road to get my roadrunner pic…I just wish the photographer behind me had given me another minute and another few shots. So it goes.

Two images combined in Coolage after processing in Lightroom. 1800mm equivalent (I moved the car forward between shots). Large shot ISO 500 @ 1/125th and small shot ISO 400 @ 1/160th. Nikon P900.