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Why do animals hate me? That is a question scholars will ponder for years. I used to think it was just dogs, the occasional cat, maybe a horse or two and even a rabbit. But low and behold nature’s dislike of the camera extends to even the most unusual of Gods creations, case in point, the sulcata tortoise.
Forget the fact that a 200-pound tortoise was found wandering along a Tracy street and was scooped up and taken to the Tracy Animal Shelter. What was strange was how ornery a tortoise gets when you try to photograph it.
Large and lumbering you know a tortoise isn’t going to run you down. But what he lacks in speed he makes up for in ill temper and no cooperation.
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So how hard can it be to photograph a tortoise? Plenty hard. First of all as soon as it smelled my camera coming near it retreated inside the shell. A playful knock-knock on his shell was greeted with a hiss that made me wonder if he was one of those tortoises that can snap a tree branch in half with his beak.
So maybe I can coax him out with a leaf of lettuce? No luck, just hissing. Maybe he likes wilted lettuce better? A louder hiss and he would waddle away as best he could inside the kennel cage that is his temporary home.
So I abandon all hope of catching his face outside the shell and just plan to stick the Canon Eos 1D as close as I can to those leathered legs and hope I catch his face. I am greeted with the now familiar hiss and an attempt to turn his butt to the camera. I think he had been talking to the dogs in the kennels next to him and got some advice on how to act in front of the camera.
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I just can’t figure it; I have no luck photographing animals, no matter the size, shape or species. From dogs to tortoises, it is always an adventure behind the camera.
2 comments:
I love this story but don't be done when one starts in a shell it is a hard thing to break out and be outside the shell.
Wow! You need to right a book on your crazy animal experiences. How many people can say they have had such fun? Between Catzilla and this tortoise, you have had a wild time!
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