To Wake Up Early

July 26, 2017, 06:25am. I arrive at the hide with my father. A first look to see whether things are calm... Nothing. I move closer to the hide, another quick glance... The fox, far away! It is not looking at me, luckily. The camera is still in the bag, itself still on my back... Quickly but discreetly I take it out and fire a first shot just as we can see its back. At the sound of the shutter, it slightly raises its head, still behind the grass. I shoot again, it lifts its head a little more, I take the portrait below, then it calmly resumes its path. Not even started and the morning has already given me one of my best memories!

06:19am, a few years later and barely ten meters closer than the spot where the fox stood, a darker rock than the others seems to follow the course of the water... In the woods — and especially just awake, I can assure you it is not always easy to see! One eye in the eyepiece... The nutria is making its rounds!

And the next day, 07:11am, I finally spot the squirrel I can hear jumping from branch to branch above my head!

A few years earlier, at 7:29am, a few branches away from the previous one, I had spotted another companion!

But despite all these early encounters, sometimes you meet late risers who are only just at breakfast.

So little awake that the shutter sound barely makes them lift their heads...

They will keep going until they come within about three meters of me, all while continuing to eat peacefully!

But not all photos happen in the morning! Summer 2025, 03:37pm, in the middle of a heat wave, hidden at the edge of a field while waiting for the rollers, I turn my head to see what is going on... Surprise coming out of the woods, silently! An unexpected face-off, but still a pleasant one!

And sometimes, at the end of a summer evening, 08:40pm, you sit down by the edge of a meadow thinking you are alone. How naive! Sometimes a colleague is already nearby!

In short, the lesson is that you do indeed have to go to bed early, but also stay up all day, and to make things worse... go to bed late!!