SEARCHING IMPRESSIONS OF LIFE: The European Lynx

Thursday, March 27, 2014

The European Lynx

I have always loved the lynx. It has a powerful and elegant look at the same time, and the characteristic tufts at the tip of the ears give this animal such a distinctive personality. It happened only once I saw one in nature, and that was actually a bobcat, in California, smaller than the species I am talking about here.

Due to the difficulty of shooting such a shy animal in the wild, I decided to go to the Bayerischer Wald National Park in the Bavarian forest, to try and take some photos of the lynx under controlled conditions. As I mentioned earlier, I think this is a very good training field for the nature photographer, even though we can't certainly compare these to shots obtained in the wild after long and careful hiding and study of the behavior of specific animals in an area. At the same time, even in controlled conditions, getting a good shot is not straightforward and that gives a certain satisfaction when you get away with good pictures of the animals.

I had a couple of opportunities to shoot the lynx, even though both not ideal. The first time the animal was resting and that went on for five hours, until the light, after the sun set, got really too little to be able to shoot. The second time, after a four-hour wait, I was able to get a little more movement, but some of the action was first covered by some trees and then again the late hour and the cloudy sky made it tougher to take good shots. Despite all that, I am pretty happy with my first shots of the lynx and I am dreaming one day to be able to take some in the wild as well.