Night Visitor

Some of us were fussing around outside in preparation for going to Lake Oconee when the cry went up that there was a possum – Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) - up a tree where we parked the cars. Apparently it had been snuffling around on the ground when W drove up and spooked it. It scrambled up the nearest tree. I have to confess that I’d only seen possums wandering aimlessly on roads; I’d never seen on up a tree so I was interested.

So, in shifts with no apparent organization, we gathered near the tree to try our luck at getting the obligatory photographs. This posed somewhat of a challenge because the possum was high enough that the infrared spotting light that allows us to focus in the dark wasn’t strong enough. So we used our led flashlights to get enough light on the subject to try to focus; this was also iffy but it did work. Flash did the rest…

View at a ‘distance’ It’s a young possum.

A closer view. It seemed almost oblivious to our presence but I guess that’s the nature of possums.

A view from the other side of the branch; it’s ‘better side.’ You can see its tail curling off the branch at the bottom of the photo.

A closer view from this angle.

Postscript: W posted one of his photos in another photographic forum. It was interesting that photographers in that group – many of them experienced – had never heard or thought of using an alternative light source to facilitate photographing something in the ‘distance’ in the dark.
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Related post:
- Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)