Our Chamois photos during the 15 July 2010 hike to Lac Scluos came about from a combination of luck and skill.
We had hiked for 3 hours, up from the Salese parking to the Col the Salese and then northwest up through the forest to the Tavels area. The last two hours we hiked slowly, looking constantly for chamois in the trees above or below the trail (where we've seen them in the past). Then a steep hike up to the Lac Tavels and a good long look-around there, before heading back down that mountain and retracing our previous trail southeast.
From the main trail we went up the side of the hill, very, very steeply, without any trail, to find the Lac Scluos. We spent a good hour wandering the pair of lakes, photographing and lunching. Finally satisfied that we had seen all there was, we headed out across the plateau to find a route back down.
Walking across an open, sunlit field I saw the chamois coming slowly out of the trees towards me. Although I was in a field in full sunlight I saw it first (I'm more observant than a wild chamois?). I froze. It dropped its head to feed. I sank down slowly, then lay prone, just another boulder in the field.
I propped up the camera and started shooting while the chamois wandered and grazed, trying to ignore scratchy dry throat, blazing sun and bothersome flies.
When the chamois disappeared back into the trees I got up and stalked it. After some searching, I found it again further into the woods. I crawled, then slowly stood up beside a pair of 2-meter high trees. Standing as just another tree, I shot more photos. And then a second chamois arrived. I photographed them both for several minutes, but they were mostly in the shadows and fairly far for my medium-telephoto camera.
When the pair of chamois moved completely back into the woods, I headed back down the mountain and continued my hike back to the Col de Salese.
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