Sonoma Ecology Center<\/a>, a nonprofit focused on ecological research, education and preservation. Caitlin, a self-described \u201cbiologist who has now also gotten into climate and housing,\u201d has spent nearly three decades at the center in various integral roles, and is now its senior project manager.<\/p>\nIn addition to hiking nearly every weekend, the family would embark on summer road trips to places like the Sierra Nevada or the Pacific Northwest. While he loves those parts of the planet, Leo\u2019s favorite landscape is the rugged coast of Marin and Sonoma counties \u2013 \u201c\u2019cause there are so many great opportunities for finding bobcats and coyotes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Along that coast, he added, those animals \u201care a little bit more habituated to people, so it can be a bit easier to have a longer experience with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late afternoon was yielding to dusk at Point Reyes National Seashore on the day last January that he made his most remarkable image. Dale had already taken some \u201cclassical\u201d pictures of a bobcat that day, some \u201cpretty nice shots\u201d that weren\u2019t \u201canything special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading home, he saw the car of some fellow photogs, and pulled over to say hello.<\/p>\n
Those photographers had been shooting a vividly spotted bobcat, but stopped due to fading light.<\/p>\n
Dale decided to take some \u201cpanning pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panning entails leaving the camera\u2019s shutter open longer while \u201cmoving the lens with the subject,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo the subject stays in focus and the background gets blurred out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That technique allowed Dale to keep working in the encroaching darkness: \u201cLeaving the shutter open longer, you can capture more light.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d only been shooting that bobcat for a few minutes when it pounced on a gopher, then \u201cdid a perfect sort of run across an open area right in front of me,\u201d with the prey still in its mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times when you\u2019re shooting with the shutter speed that slow,\u201d he said, everything can look fairly blurry. It can create a cool effect but it\u2019s sometimes harder to tell what\u2019s actually going on. In this case everything came together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really excited when I went back through the pictures and realized how sharp this shot came out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A month or two earlier, a quarter mile away, near the end of the day, Dale had been scanning a ridge backlit by \u201ca really beautiful, kind of perfect photography sunset,\u201d with the sun \u201ccoming up beneath this higher fog bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that moment a coyote made its unhurried way across the tableau, allowing Dale to capture the indelible image that won the National Wildlife Federation prize.<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TPD-L-LeoDale2-01-01.jpg\")
This photo of a coyote at sunset was taken by Leo Dale at Point Reyes National Seashore in late 2024. The photo earned Dale first place in “young photographer’s” division of the National Wildlife Federation’s annual wilderness photography contest. (Leo Dale)<\/p>\n
An only child, Leo has \u201coodles of cousins,\u201d said his father. One of those cousins, five or so years older, has a preternatural gift for spotting wildlife.<\/p>\n
Leo \u201clearned that from his cousin,\u201d said Caitlin \u2013 \u201chow good you can get at spotting animals other people can\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now, Richard added, with a smile, \u201cit\u2019s kind of annoying, when you take him out, you look out at a landscape and he\u2019ll see five things before I see one.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Richard was gave his then-6-year-old son a scratched old Panasonic point-and-shoot camera that was damaged, \u201cbut still took pictures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many upgrades later, Leo is now shooting with an OM-1, made by the company formerly known as Olympus. OM cameras \u201chave a smaller sensor, which I really like because it means the lenses are a lot smaller, so i can carry two camera bodies around, with two different lenses, and hike around and not have to worry about carrying a heavy system.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Wildlife](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TPD-L-LeoDale4-01.jpg\")
Wildlife photographer Leo Dale explores California’s North Coast (Leo Dale)<\/p>\n
Not that endurance is a problem for Dale, who was a strong cross-country runner in high school.<\/p>\n
At Colby, he intends to double major in environmental policy and economics.<\/p>\n
His talent and passion for wildlife photography \u2013 where might that take him?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still not sure,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to be able to combine it with some of my environmental policy work in the future, but most of my interest is around climate change and the energy transition, which can be harder to directly link through wildlife photography.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now he said, he\u2019s letting his photography \u201cevolve on its own and sort of choose its own direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
That direction, since he got home from Colby on this holiday break, has often been west, to the coast that calls to him like a siren.<\/p>\n
As Caitlin noted on a recent, wet and gloomy afternoon, \u201che\u2019s out there now.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On X @ausmurph88.<\/p>\n
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![\"Leo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TPD-L-LeoDale3-01.jpg\")
Leo Dale, wildlife photographer and student at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, seen here in an undated photo.(Darren Duarte)<\/p>\n