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Imagine having a panther about 20 yards away from you. Then imagine it turning and staring at you with its piercing eyes.
Photographer Carlton Ward Jr. had this experience recently when he was shooting in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. It was a shot he'd been trying to get for 20 years, as he detailed in this piece he later wrote for National Geographic. The result is striking (see below). And the story behind it is just as gripping.
From his Instgram feed: "For the past two years I have been pursuing Florida panthers with camera traps — the only reliable method for photographing them. But two weeks ago, at Audubon's (Corkscrew Swamp), I had an encounter that I'll be talking about the rest of my life. I was driving into the backcountry and rounded a corner to see a panther sitting in the dirt road. I grabbed a telephoto lens and nervously snapped a few distant frames through the windshield before rolling a little closer and pulling off to the side. The panther was still 150 yards away in harsh 3 PM light. I was just watching when filmmaker Eric Bendick called. I whispered that I was staring at a real-life panther; the conference about our panther film would have to wait. Eric told me to take some video, and with the panther still sitting in the road in bad light, I complied, not realizing how jacked up I was until trying to hold my iPhone steady. After a few seconds of jittery self-narration, the panther started walking right towards me. When it sat back down in the road I resumed my video, but the panther started walking toward me again! I switched back to my main camera, put it in silent mode and held my breath. The panther kept coming, skirting the edge of the swamp behind grass and low palms. I let the shutter rip every time it revealed itself, coming closer with every step. Then it walked within 20 yards of my truck and sat down in an island of palms directly out my window! I filled the frame with its body and looked straight into its piercing eyes! I had mistaken it for a young male by its height, but was corrected when a ruffling in the palms transformed into a kitten. When the little guy got closer, its mother stood and continued down the road. Then they vanished into a thick hammock leaving me alone with my thoughts. When I went to change the batteries in my nearby camera trap, the process felt mechanical and empty. Remote cameras are invaluable, but it’s a whole different experience when the panther is looking right back at you."
In addition to his photography, Ward has dedicated himself to land conservation. Read more about Ward's work as founder of The Florida Wildlife Corridor.