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TUNKHANNOCK — The mother moose’s instinct told her it was time for her baby to swim, but the calf at first seemed hesitant.
“It climbed onto her back, and she pushed it off. Then it got the hang of swimming, and you couldn’t get it out of the water,” said Joan Borden of Susquehanna County, who quietly hid and watched the woodland drama with her husband, Jim.
“We’ve got a thing for moose,” Joan Borden said with an affectionate laugh, admitting the “big, clumsy-looking animals” are a favorite subject when she and her husband lug their cameras into the wilderness.
You can see the Bordens’ wildlife photos of moose, owls, ducks, eagles and other animals in the “New Gallery” of the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock, where they will be on display through March 31.
And, if you ask how they got close enough to photograph all these creatures, they’ll explain reaching the habitat is often a big part of the adventure.
“One place where we go in Maine, it takes a considerable amount of time in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle to access the remote lakes,” Jim Borden said. “We’ll travel along log roads and skidder paths and then launch kayaks and explore rivers.”
The Bordens take their cameras out in all four seasons, and they’re not afraid of snow.
“When we were in Ottawa in February 2013, it was minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were walking over three feet of snow,” recalled Jim Borden, who at the time was carrying a tripod over his shoulder and 60 pounds of other camera equipment in a backpack.
“We had to be very careful where we walked and watch where vegetation was piercing through because there it would be soft. A couple of times I broke through and went in above my hips. I had to wallow my way out of it.”
But for the Bordens, none of this is a hardship, not even if they wait all day but see no animals.
It’s tremendously enjoyable, they said, to explore the Adirondacks and Catskill Mountains, New England, Canada and Virginia as well as closer-to-home scenic areas such as the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area near Kleinfeltersville in Lebanon County, which they plan to visit soon to photograph migrating water fowl.
“I used to be a hunter and I’m not a hunter with a firearm anymore,” Jim Borden said. “But we’re doing the same type of things. You’ve still got to know the animal, find the animal, and be quiet and hidden so you don’t spook the animal. It’s just a rush being able to watch the animals interact as individuals and family units.”
Have they ever been in danger?
“Oh, (the animals) are aware of us,” Jim Borden said. “We’re just cautious. We try not to get between a mother moose and a calf because that’s like getting between a mama bear and her cubs. I’ve seen one of my friends get nearly attacked. A moose lunged across the river at him. She missed hitting the boat, but he got the idea.”
The Bordens’ full-time job is running a firearm-manufacturing facility, Borden Accuracy, with a showroom in Springville.
Calling photography their “hobby job,” they said they’ve sold images to a real estate company in Maine and to the Northwoods Sporting Journal, which used the photos as cover art.
Their photos on display at the Dietrich are available for sale and 20 percent of the proceeds will benefit the Wyoming County Cultural Center.
The public can see the wildlife photography exhibit whenever the Dietrich Theater is open for movie showings.
And, what kind of cameras do they use?
“We’ve both got Nikon professional 600-milimeter lens with teleconverters that make them equivalent to 850 milimeters,” Jim Borden said. “It’s like using a spotting scope but they’re actual camera lenses.”