In this episode of the Light Painting Photography I get more freaked out that I have been in a very long time out in the woods at night when I see a stranger watching me from the shadows.
Here is what happened. As I was creating my Light Paintings I got the feeling that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I felt like someone or something was watching me in the dark. I stopped Light Painting and began to scan the area when I spotted a dark figure sitting on a rock watching me about 20 feet from where I had placed my Photography Gear. I was only able to see a silhouette of a figure because even though there was some moonlight in the sky, down in the canyon it was very dark. This dark figure sat there watching me Light Painting for about 30-40 minutes before I decided to walk over to see what was going on. I was in the middle of nowhere, as I often am, and there was only one way out of this location. I walked over and said hello, the man said hello back but it was not your normal conversation and it made me even more uncomfortable. I explained what I was doing and was hoping he would leave after that so I could get back to Light Painting. The man didn’t leave. He just kept sitting there watching me.
I have run into people in the woods at night before and the interactions were much different. I am someone that always looks for the positive and believes that most people are good but this interaction gave me a bad feeling and it all just felt odd. I stayed on the opposite side of the stream and tried to Light Paint a few more images but I could not get the thought of this guy sneaking up on me and cracking me over the head, or him stealing my gear that he wasn’t sitting far from, out of my mind. I decided I needed to pack up all my gear and leave. The problem was there was only one way out of this location and that was to walk directly by this random man who was sitting there in the dark.
I packed up all my gear and headed toward him. I decided when I walked up to him I would shine a bright light in his face to disorient him, JUST IN CASE… I shinned the light and when I did he tried to scoot back on the rock and fell over onto the trail. I am pretty sure he was just drunk, high or both. I asked him if he was alright, he said yes he was fine. I wished him a good night and hiked back to my car, looking over my shoulder the whole time to make sure he wasn’t following behind me.
The bottom line is that more than likely from this man’s view he was out there in the woods to drink, relax and “collect negative ions” as he said to me. He is probably a good dude that, like me, loves to be out in nature. HOWEVER from my perspective I was feeling like he had bad intentions because of the odd interaction and the fact that his behavior didn’t match what I would have expected. Also that he watched me in the dark for well over an hour. The bottom line is that I made it out of there safe and sound. I don’t know if this guy was a serial killer looking for his next victim of if he was tripping out of his mind, if he was tripping he probably thinks that he met an alien.
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