As a followup to yesterday’s post on the American Pika (“Florist Wanna-Be’s”), today’s post includes some images made while I was sitting among the rocks and photographing these cute little critters. I wasn’t really expecting a close encounter with them (past experience has shown that these little guys are typically very skittish and don’t tolerate humans very well), however this trip was much different. I had one pika come up and sniff my boot! I even had one that was so close, my camera/lens couldn’t focus on him! The likely reason I was able to get so close this time, was that I was quietly sitting down among the rocks and not moving around much. Animals are much more relaxed when you are down low, and not moving around much (not a perceived threat).
Here are a few of the images I captured:
One pika stopped a short distance from me and began preening:
And this next little guy was very inquisitive, coming right up to my feet (too close to photograph, but I grabbed this shot before he got that close):
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF100mm-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6, IS + Canon 1.4x TC, shot at 300mm to 475mm (a couple of the images are cropped a bit)
- Handheld, with IS “On”
- ISO 2000 (all photos)
- Aperture f/7.1 and f/8
- Shutter 1/400 sec. to 1/500 sec.