Sometimes the littlest things can yield the biggest excitement. In October, I was on a road trip in the Canadian Rockies. I had come to Banff hoping to get photographs of moose, bear, and elk, and although I did enjoy some moderate success, I didn’t really see as much as I was hoping for. Still, the scenery was absolutely jaw dropping incredible. I’d drive around all day shooting the inspiring mountainscapes while being on the lookout for wildlife. On this particular drive alongside the river in the Columbia Valley, I stopped to take some panoramic shots of a magnificent distant view of the mountains rising up against a deep blue sky, with fall coloured trees and bushes blazing in the foreground, all perfectly reflected in the quiet waters of an immense wetland pond. The scale was unbelievable. I’d been working the shot for quite a while when I began to notice, a small rustling going on in a nearby bush. Investigating, I spotted this chipmunk scampering around the branches feeding on berries. I forgot about the vista and spent the next hour trying to capture a clear shot of this little guy. The bush was dense and he was fast so it was a challenge to track him and then there was always some leaf or branch blocking the view. Finally he dropped down in the clear stretching for his prize just long enough for me to get a shot off. Well you’d think I’d come across Bigfoot himself, I was so excited. It was the first wildlife I’d seen all day. And when I think about how far I’d traveled to get out west, all the planning and grand expectations, and the grandeur of the locations, it was pretty silly to be so excited by a chipmunk. Still, I was.
