When It Was Film, Part III

The Fox with the Feather                              Date: Early May, 1996, Date Unknown

Red Fox pup with Ring-necked Pheasant feather, the Fox with the Feather, my most popular image.

When film was the medium of photographic expression, the world moved more slowly.  Images were vastly more expensive to make, and perfection was, more like pottery, nearly impossible to obtain.  So, like potters, we pursued the physical proof of our artistic expressions always a half step behind the evolving artistic vision.

To make this image, I spent a couple of hours per day over a few weeks, more than forty hours total, sitting motionless at the edge of a dirt mound.  In the middle of the mound, a red fox den grew constantly as energetic pups excavated a dozen new holes.  A den that had begun as a simple tube through the Earth had become a fragile hydra, entrance holes merging together and a settling into sagging tree roots.  Over the days the pups grew used to me, and my presence transformed from looming threat to beloved uncle.  My arrival sometimes emptied the den in a pile of frolicking pups, and one even played tug of war with my shoe lace.   Even the mother fox grew used to my presence, and, while she never completely accepted me, she sometimes nursed her pups less than fifty feet away, sure to be as far and opposite of me on the den site as possible. 

The death of a pheasant hen was surely a windfall for the mother fox, though she did not consume it at the den. Her reluctance to share the bird with her pups at the den was part of her defiance of me, her commitment to write me off as a pest and a menace.   Remains of the bird did find their way to the den site eventually, and for a brief time, the pups played in the feathers.  I anticipated this image for a few hours, but, to my surprise, what seemed so obvious would not play out.  Finally, for just a few seconds, a pup picked up a feather, pranced around with it, flattened out on the ground to chew on it, and then stood, holding the hen's feather before letting it flutter to the wind.

Film was expensive then, and pressing the shutter release was a calculated decision.  Each image was crafted, and poor planning was money down the drain.  Of the hundreds of images made at the den site, a few dozen are sharp, good, and worthy.  This sole image remains as a defining moment. It has been published in Cabin Life, Cabin Living and the Weatherguide Calendar series.

I made this image with a Canon EOS Elan, Canon 100-300 kit lens and, if memory serves me well, Kodak Ektachrome 100 or 200S.