Oh, what a perfect sky it was, as the day began to wind down. I made a mental note to cease whatever I was doing at 45mins before sunset to get up to the Delta for a photo. If you know me, you have probably figured out by now that I often grossly underestimate the time I need to scout a suitable composition, and then find myself frantically speeding up and down the levee roads at the very last moment. This night was to be no different.
Fast forward after sunset to the moment of peak sky color and I stopped my truck on Upper Jones Tract near a large patch of tule reeds and carefully scrambled down the loose rip rap to the water's edge. No time to refine a comp, I needed to make the best of my situation, so I framed up these floating clumps of water hyacinth and set up for a wide pano.
At that moment, I heard several sniffing and snapping sounds from inside the bushes to my left, and a river otter jumped out to have a look at me. My initial reaction was simply to not bother it and get down to business, but the otter had other plans. It quickly became aggressive, charging at me several times, and I needed to turn my focus from photography...to personal survival! I found some rocks to throw at it, which only made it more angry. It returned again and again, darting at me, and when a rock finally hit its mark, the otter sped into the water...reappearing offshore, where it began a sea assault, splashing me and my camera gear with some swift swipes of the tail. It continued to screech at me until I saw that I had captured exactly one pass of frames with my camera, and I grabbed as much of my gear as I could and lept back up to the road. As I drove off, I think I heard the otter say, "...and STAY OUT!"
Lens is the DFA 35mm f/3.5 on the 645Z. This is about 6 vertical frames, single exposure, manually stitched.
Thankfully, no humans were injured in the making of this photo.