Mountain Goats, Washington. © John Marshall

From the Photographer...
John Marshall

I had been hired to take some scenic photographs of a huge land acquisition The Nature Conservancy in Washington had made with Plum Creek Timber in the Tieton River Canyon on the east side of the Washington Cascades.

My guide was the Conservancy's Betsy Bloomfield. Betsy was showing me Devil's Slide — a spectacular escarpment looking over a vast area of forest. Getting there involved a two mile hike on a trail.

At the parking lot before we headed out, Betsy mentioned that people occasionally saw mountain goats. On the off chance that we would luck into them, I packed my 400mm telephoto lens.

I took pictures of hikers, wildflowers and, of course, the cliffs of Devil's Slide. I even got some mediocre pictures of mountain goats from a distance. Having accomplished what we set out to do, we started back on the trail.

We had been hiking for half an hour when I said something about a barnyard aroma. There were a few droppings on the trail and we decided that was the source. I thought no more about it. Betsy and I were having a great conversation about everything but photography when we came over a rise and I saw white hair. That was followed by a clatter of hooves — a herd of nannies and kids moved into view.

I was not well prepared — I had not even been thinking about taking a photograph. Luckily, I had my camera in my hands instead of in my backpack. It was on a monopod with the 400mm lens attached. The monopod was collapsed and there was no time to extend it, so I lifted the camera and started taking pictures.

The photo opportunity lasted all of two seconds. Fortunately in those two seconds I pulled off a couple of in-focus and properly exposed frames. It just goes to show that you never know when that great wildlife photography moment will happen!

I used a Canon 5-D Mark II Camera, Canon 400mm F4.0 DO IS lens, ISO 400, shutter speed 1/500 and aperture F5.6.

John Marshall is a Washington-based photographer. His web site is www.johnmarshallphoto.com.

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