Something is definitely wrong with this picture.
I head out into the wild looking for the consummate wildlife image. I have visions of shooting regal-looking animals in gorgeous natural vistas, dappled with perfect light.
Or maybe I’m capturing the perfect interaction between two wild critters, or a life and death struggle as a predator tries to stave off starvation while its prey tries to live another day. So many possibilities …
My photos are going to win the grand prizes of grandiose wildlife contests and pay me like I won the lottery.
My daydreaming is rudely interrupted when I realize that I just took a picture of a pelican mooning me. Ah well, maybe next time.
If you’re going to insist on taking photos, I’m going to keep mooning you. Bottoms up.
Yikes these dandelions are sour. I need some meat!
Don’t mind me I’m just dreaming about a little sleep walking.
Can someone turn up the light … trying to fish over here.
I know there’s a piece of grass hanging out of my mouth. What exactly did you plan on doing about it?
I’ve seen the big guys do this. I’m pretty sure this is right. So what happens next?
Krahnpix 
I’m trying to decide between the grass-chewing bear and the sleep walker as the favourite here 🙂 Altogether amazing wildlife photos!
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Thanks for checking them out. I enjoyed having a little fun with these photos. Glad you enjoyed them.
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“Crash Landing!”
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That’s it!
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Candid wildlife, eh? Au naturel is quite attractive – butt shot or not! hehe I quite like that one actually- the movement suggested in the water and the clarity of the moment are kinda exciting…
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There was always something appealing about that shot. Maybe it’s just the candid nature. I never was one for lining everyone up for group photo with faked smiles.
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Every Christmas family photo – all decked out in hideous Christmas sweaters from days gone by, lined up by the tree… 😉
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At least it was original!!
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There was a great big bull moose behind our yard today – caught it out quadding. But – no camera. I haven’t had the chance to pick anything up. I was sitting there watching it in a full broadside, thinking ‘Lyle would have loved this….”
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That must have been a beautiful sight and I would have loved it. Better get that camera!
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I for one love your quirky wildlife.
Where else do you get to see the underside of a Pelican’s feet?
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That’s a great question! Glad you enjoy them – I know I do.
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The picture conveys reality.
Wrongness is judgmental.
Vision can be distorted.
Capturing the moon varies over time.
Bottoms up connotes definitive assessment.
Downward focus for a watering reason.
Not up to your expectation?
Don’t feel compelled to pull the trigger.
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Gotta love a pelican butt shot.
You have cornered the market on great faces here!
Also interesting to see the centerboard on the ridge of that pelican’s bill indicating it’s in breeding plumage. This is something I have never seen in person.
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I think they look at me and then interesting things happen! With all the activity in your marsh, I’m surprised you haven’t seen that.
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These are great shots, and I love the funny captions 😀
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Thanks. It’s always nice humour connects. It turns out we don’t all like the same brand.
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Powerful pieces as usual Lyle, you know exactly how to caption your fabulous photographs – these are great!
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Glad you like those captions. It’s nice when the photos and captions all come together.
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Your birds and animals have personality and individuality, not like the more idealized “models” that we tend to see in many photographs. You caught them in real life! it seems so “normal” to capture them with funny expressions and odd poses. I suspect that if someone with a camera stalked us for a few hours during a typical day, they’d come up with lots of shots like this. I really like the shot of the bear with the stalk of grass (tell me that you’ve never chewed on a stalk of grass–I have), but my absolute favorite is the final shot of the juvenile head-butting. Come to think of it, your photos begin and end with a butt. Obviously you don’t follow a policy of no ifs, ands, or butts.
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Yes, I’m guilty on the butt policy and guilty of chewing on the odd stalk of grass which has surprising flavour! I like your comment about animal personality. It’s funny because sometimes we can strive too hard to make a photo of an animal seem just right and take away their personality.
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I love your blooper reel photos. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing an animal in perfect light when it refuses to look up at you, other than not having the camera ready when the animal does look up.
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Glad you enjoyed the bloopers. I must be more creative than you since I can come up with a lot more frustrating ways to miss the shot:)
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Great photos.I’ve no chance of photographing brown bears in Scotland unless I’m at Edinburgh Zoo!
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Thanks. It’s been a good year bear sightings – what a way to get the adrenaline flowing when you see a bear in the distance.
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The last time my adrenaline started flowing outdoors when we were walking through a field and the cows turned out to be bulls. These bulls can move swiftly when they want to.
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And be quite temperamental or mean. Yes that could do it.
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This reminds me of why I usually stick to buildings and landscapes, they are less likely to moon you unexpectedly. Thanks for giggles, these are the best out takes I’ve seen in a while!
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Ah but between the moons and the frustrations comes the pure thrill of catching the beauty of wildlife and that’s what keeps me going back. Happy to be the best of the worst:)
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I feel your pain; I have so many photographs like that, and they haunt me!
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I appreciate that. It’s hard to give up what might have been because every once in while it all comes together and that is incredible.
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Ahhh – too funny. I was going through my shots yesterday morning and found that I had been mooned several times by a titmouse – not his best side.
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Glad you enjoyed the humour. Is it just me or is the mooning becoming more common?
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Nice shots! 🙂 Love the commentary to 🙂 //Jonathan
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Thanks so much. It’s quite enjoyable when I can get the shots and words all working together to tell a good story.
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Definitely an award winning butt shot. The rest are great too, but the commentary takes the prize!
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I just knew butt shots were prize worthy! Glad you liked the commentary – it was fun to come up with different approaches.
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Such a coincidence! I missed a fantastic rainbow shot last night by “that much” too! By far this is the toughest part of photography for me, putting all the failures behind. I love both bear shots!
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The bears always hold a special spot for me. I’m not sure if I’m getting any better at getting close – it still feels like a miss. So I try to save it with humour and then, ironically, sometimes get a better response when I post them. It makes you wonder.
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So beautiful,funny and clever…I
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Those three words cover a lot of territory. I really appreciate that.
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I am glad.It’s a lovely post
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Photos are great; captions are hilarious!
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In the elusive chase of trying to create humour, I’m always glad to hear that caught one.
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Wonderful post. Love the commentary.
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I appreciate your comments. I’m enough of a writer to put a lot of stock in the words.
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I love the bear one, because I can imagine how it might frustrate a photographer…certainly helps to have a sense of humor!
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It certainly does though I must confess that most of the humour shows after some time has passed.
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Super stuff.
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Thanks so much.
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Such an interesting shot of the pelican with the color of the beautiful water, and the gorgeous webbed-feet! I feel as if I’ve traveled quite a distance to chat with these awesome animals!!! Thanks!!
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The day I saw the pelican was just a wonderful day like that the pelican was gorgeous, if not always co-operative. I’m pretty pleased if the photos seemed like taking you there!
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Yup, you should be very pleased!! I traveled…and stayed at my computer…Ha! I love to check out where you’re taking us next!!
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Some days that makes two of us wondering where the next post will lead!
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Well, I’m just going to be patient & wait!!
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I wish I had an award worthy of these shots. Your captions are exactly what the creatures would say if they spoke English. I’m sure of it. Exceptional work, as always, Lyle.
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Thanks. I’ll take your comments over an award. It did get me thinking what they would be say in other languages …
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Hilarious! And a pretty good butt shot…
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Glad you found it funny. Yes I thot is was one of the better butt shots and I’ve take quite a few.
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