Autumn just may be my favorite season in Maine.   The colorful crisp cold days of October fire me up to get outdoors with my camera always ready like no other time of the year.   But the autumn behavior of Maine's wildlife sometimes presents very difficult choices.   And if it comes down to shooting the colors or the critters, I'll always choose the critters.

     Not that I don’t shoot my share of fall scenics, especially photographs of any place in Baxter State Park.   Dick Lemke of Impact New England, the publisher of my Baxter State Park calendar, likes me to provide him with a variety of fall images to select from, and it's always a good idea to keep your publisher happy.   But a more seductive passion sometimes interferes with my pursuit of those scenes: camera hunting Maine wildlife.   And in the fall, that's a most intense passion!

     Whether it's a Northern Harrier pausing in its southward migration to cruise low over one of the salt marshes of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the southern coast, the gathering flocks of Canada Geese along the Down East coast, the whitetail bucks hanging out together in many a golden field or ripe orchard before the rut begins, a monster bull moose into the rut in the Maine Woods, black bears in the beech nuts deep in the northern forest, there is just so much happening with Maine wildlife in October that there's never enough time to capture it all, let alone go after the great scenic shots that are out there everywhere.

     The best light for scenics also usually coincides with the times of day that wildlife is most active.   The glow at early morning and early evening, when most wildlife comes out in the open to feed, really lights up a scene.   Because images shot in that light almost always look better than those made at any other time of day, some photographers call it "sweet light" or "warm light".   I call it golden light.

     By October, the duration of that golden light each day is very, very short.   You'd better be ready because it goes by fast.   My method, whenever possible, is to be there early enough - read that to mean in the dark - to shoot the scene in the dramatic first light of the day before the wildlife that hopefully show up soon afterwards.

     While you often can do both, there are many times or places where you cannot.   For example, if getting close to the wildlife you're after requires that you shoot from a blind, you must usually get into the blind while it's still dark.   And since most blinds do not permit the use of the wide angle lenses that make some of the best scenic images, you have to forego the better scenics.   I've spent more than a few mornings watching wonderful scenes in great golden light without firing a shot because I was in a blind waiting for critters that never showed.

     Try that yourself and afterwards you might tell yourself that you should have gotten out of the blind and shot the scene.   But if you do, and that whitetail walks in just as you get out of the blind?   Sometimes you just have to make a choice: target wildlife or go for the scenics.   That’s camera hunting.

     None of this is to say that a touch of fall color in a photograph doesn't help make a photograph.   A better background always improves the pursuit of artful images of Maine wildlife.   Sometimes you can set up at a great scenic spot and wildlife will step into the picture during those fleeting moments of golden light.   It doesn't happen often, so when it does, be prepared.   Have your camera set up and ready to shoot, with the lens on it that you need for the target you anticipate, the light metered and your eye on the scene.

     And don't spare the film.   You never know when you might get another chance such as that.   Film becomes the least expensive part of your effort when you add in all the time and energy required to get out.

Catch yours in the good light.

Bill Silliker, Jr. teaches wildlife & nature photography for L.L. Bean's Outdoor Discovery Schools and has done the photography for 5 books, several of which he also wrote. He is editor of the website www.wildlifewatcher.com as well as for his own website at www.camerahunter.com

© Copyright 2000 Bill Silliker, Jr. all rights reserved.