Shyness is nice

…but shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life you want to. (Thanks, Morrissey.)

I am a very shy person and quite introverted. It’s true that when I get to know you I talk a lot more and you might have a hard time shutting me up at times, but walking up to a stranger and asking them a question is NOT something I relish doing. The other day when I was at Coyote Hills, high up on a hill, I saw some people partway down another hill, standing around next to large cameras on tripods. Obviously I was burning with curiosity about what they were looking at or for but I couldn’t work up the nerve to go up to them and ask them. I think especially because I was carrying only my little “hiking” camera and not my “impressive” DSLR and telephoto lens, the latter of which they were all obviously using. (It’s funny I felt that way because when I got the new camera my husband said, “you won’t look as ‘cool’ anymore when you were out hiking” to which I responded, “that’s a pro, not a con: I don’t need to stand out”.) I tried to find what they had trained their cameras on but I was too far away, even with the impressive zoom on my “unimpressive” camera, and as they were standing around talking rather than actively shooting I figured they didn’t actually see whatever it was at the moment either. In the end I never did find out what they’d been looking at or waiting for.

I think I’ve mentioned here before that whenever I go to Coyote Hills, I finish my visit up with a quick trip to Hoot Hollow, near the Visitor Center, where Great horned owls are known to hang out, but I have never seen one despite all my attempts. (Though I DID once see a GHOW near Hoot Hollow.) Well, guess what I saw that night!

What’s more, a few minutes after I got there and started shooting, these two ladies carrying huge lenses came in and asked me where “it” was, so I pointed the owl out to them. They said they’d seen a GHOW fly into the trees over this way and had run over to Hoot Hollow to look for it, though none of us knew if that was the one they’d seen. I also don’t know if they had been involved with the “tripod party” and if, therefore, the tripod people had been looking at a GHOW, but I don’t think these women had anything to do with the other people because neither of them had a tripod. In fact, one of these two women – who were no larger than I am and in some circles my nickname is a non-ironic “Tiny” – was hand-holding what must have been at least a 500mm lens. I consider myself skilled at hand-holding a 400mm lens, but that thing was twice as big as my 400mm. AND it was actually quite dark by this time. I’m dying to know if her pictures turned out – I’d be really, really impressed if so – but I’ll never know because I certainly didn’t ask her!

The moral of this story is I probably should have learned something about shyness not getting me what I want (more wildlife photo ops), except I SAW AN OWL ANYWAY SO MY DAY WAS MADE AND I LEARNED NOTHING!