Yesterday evening I looked out the sliding glass patio doors to see a very young cottontail rabbit hopping around the backyard not far from the edge of our patio.

I ran upstairs to grab my Lowe Pro camera bag and pulled out my Pentax KP digital SLR camera. The lens was a Sigma 70-300mm APO DG zoom.

Ready Set Click

Sitting on the floor to get a low profile, I slowly opened the sliding glass doors. Holding the camera lens as steady as possible, I zoomed all the way out (300mm focal length) and started taking pictures.

Using single-shot mode, I clicked the shutter taking several shots. Then, switching to burst mode, I took a total of 38 shots in less than a minute.

Gone in Sixty Seconds

The little bugger hopped into the brush and was gone in a flash. But I captured several great images in sixty seconds.

Here are a few images…

When opportunity knocks, be ready. I had all of sixty seconds to capture these images. Afterward, I deleted most of them because they were duplicates. The four you see here tell the story.

Peter cottontail stalks a broad-leaf weed. He bypasses tasty clover blossoms for a big, tender plant. After gulping it down he disappears into the brush.

Maybe next time I can use a 2x teleconverter to get up close and personal. I hope there is a next time.

The moral of this story is “Be Prepared.”