Without a camera ....

The other morning, before dawn, our dogs started barking furiously at the bedroom window. I got up, and saw a shadowy figure in our drive. I got a pair of binoculars and had a second look - it was a doe, standing rigidly, and alert. Then, a second, smaller shadow, and another. Coyotes!

The drama played out over a couple of minutes. The doe stamped and feinted an attack. The coyotes dropped back and circled. Finally, the doe turned and bounded down our drive, with the coyotes loping behind.

I hoped she would lose them, and expected that she would.

I didn't have a camera to document the scene. The images will remain with me a long time though. It was an emotionally charged drama that played out before me, a drama that is as old as Nature herself.

I don't regret not having a camera. The experience did underscore one thing for me: images remain as powerful symbols of our emotional experiences. For me, successful photographs are those that recall not just the scene, but somehow capture the emotion associated with experiencing the scene. Whether in a print, or in my memories, images are powerful signposts in my life.