Taking photos during this period of societal paranoia

Paranoia: The primary symptoms of paranoia is an obsessive belief that people, governments, or any “others” are conspiring to harm you and that belief leads the individual to feelings of distrust even in everyday, banal interactions.

On Saturday, I went to local tidal pond to see if there was any wildlife activity. I twisted on a Nikkor 70-300 zoom lens on my D300 with only half-hearted enthusiasm. As I scanned the scene, I was pleasantly surprised to see an osprey swoop and come out of the water with a fish in its talons far across the pond. Too bad I didn’t have a bigger lens or a 2X converter with me.

Anyway, the bird flies toward me. It lands on a dock piling about 250 feet away. I backed up the truck to make sure I had a good background of trees, deliberately avoiding distracting shorefront homes in the images.  I snapped 40 shots. None of them was very good because of the distance, the poor light and my lack of enthusiasm.

The bird was content to tear at the fish and face away from me. It was backlit and the background was dark and made choosing an exposure difficult. It looked like the bird was going to stay put, so I packed my gear and drove home. My hopes of a flight shot with a fish in its talons becoming a real long shot.

Within a half hour after arriving home, the front door bell rang and a police officer asked if I was the owner of the vehicle in the driveway. I said yes. He said that a homeowner on the other side of the tidal pond observed me taking photos of his home and lodged a complaint regarding my suspicious behavior. By the way, it’s a nice home in a beautiful setting, but I deliberately chose a more natural background of trees.

I laughed and told the investigating officer, that I was a photographer and that I had been making a feeble attempt at capturing an image of an osprey with a fish in its talons. I showed the officer the 40 photos on the camera’s LCD screen. The officer asked to see them again and then I showed him some photos hanging on the dining room walls. I also gave him a business card and suggested that he give the card to the homeowner so he could purchase a picture for the trouble he caused everyone.  LOL! The officer just smiled.

I treated the event with a sense of humor, but later I was miffed at the idea that I could be suspected of some kind of wrongdoing. Then I nodded to myself as I realized that 9/11 has left deep, psychic scars on all of us.