You Lookin at Me?

During the pandemic, my mom (suffering from dementia) came to live with us. During that year, the schools were shut down, and with it, my business as a college sports photographer ended. I had very little opportunity to do any kind of photography at all. It was a very complicated and sad time in our lives here.

I would shop for food every day at the local market, and my wife would help my mom get ready in the morning before the day started. I would shop while she was helping my mom, and then I would have my mom for the rest of the day. My mom needed 24/7 care, at least a presence in the house. So, my wife would wake my mom up on my mom's day (usually between 6 and 8:20 am, every day). During that time, I would go to the market and shop for the day. Our lives became a stopwatch-driven routine, with very little wiggle room at all for personal peace. I had to be home at 8:20 to relieve my wife so she could start her work day behind a locked bedroom/office door. My shift was from that time to the rest of the day. My only cathartic opportunity came if I could get done with shopping by, say, 7:30. I could then take 20 minutes to drive to the park or the lake, whichever was quickest and most convenient. Hence, the year-long series of photographs became the “My 20 minutes a day” series. I have over a hundred cool photos of animals and even some real people in a group, which really kept me sane during a difficult time.

In this case, I had gone up to Castaic Lake. One of the cool things about Castaic Lake is that it has a lot of Canadian geese that stop over there. Cloudy days are the best for shooting in the mornings, or even at any time of day. The light is always very even, the colors are richer, and I've even learned to shoot from my car windows. Since I only had 20 minutes, I really couldn't get out and go wander around looking for shots.

Well, nobody is at the park at a quarter to 8, so I can cruise along in the various parking lot sections. A lot of times, I would get some really nice shots, and the angles were good because it was low, sitting in the car. I also found out that when you stop, the birds or the animals really don't notice you in the car, so they're more likely to get closer.

I was striking out that particular day and was on my way home. At the lake, the exit is about 2000 yards from where I was looking for birds, so I came back around the bend. "I'll take one more trip down to the Lagoon exit,” was my frustrated thought. So as I'm leaving the lake, this coyote walks right across the road in front of me, very casually, like he has no fear or anxiety about a car coming. Of course, I'm only moving five miles an hour at the time. And he saunters in front of my car, walks up on this embankment, and then turns toward me, stops, and poses.

This was a photographer's dream shot. The embankment was raised, the light diffused by the morning clouds, there was absolutely no obstruction,n and the animal just looked beautifully healthy. Now, I'm shooting out my car window, and there's just a bit of elevation. I had enough time to roll my window down, grab my camera, and take a couple of long, deep breaths. He never even flinched. He just walked over, stood on a little mound of grass, and it was like God just said, “I see you, Tony. This is for you.”