Lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled all through the night. With the dawn a quiet reverence prevailed. Horses and riders filed silently through a North Carolina pine forest. An occasional “Hound, please” was heard.
It was August and the beginning of Tot Goodwin’s and Green Creek Hounds’ summer hunt week. Scent was quickly diminishing with the rising heat and humidity.
Little did Erik Olsen, professional photographer, know that today would mark a milestone in his career. Erik strode along following and running ahead at checks to get the best position possible to photograph the hunt. He looked quite the picture himself—tall, slim, and spiffy in his dark olive wide-brimmed hat, camera ready for the moment.
Erik was born in Germany. As a child of five, he would go into the darkroom with his dad to develop photos. That’s where his passion for photography evolved. Erik’s dad often purchased new high-tech equipment and gave Erik his old cameras. Erik says he never saw his dad’s face because his dad was always behind a camera.
Erik moved with his parents to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was seventeen. He eventually moved to Asheville where he started riding and joined the Green Creek Hounds.
In 2000 Erik became a professional, photographing horse shows and foxhunts. He set up a website in 2002 to showcase his photography.
Today was another adventure as he strode along with the hunt. After a while he made his way back to the meet, where he could photograph the field as it finished the day’s hunting.
Tot dismounted and took the hounds across an open field into an oak forest. Suddenly hounds opened with a cry like a chorus.
From Erik’s position, he thought, what if the hounds drove the fox to him. The chorus got louder and he saw something coming straight at him. From a long distance it looked like a very small hound. “Wait! Maybe, just maybe?” It was a red fox. Camera ready, the fox came closer and closer, but suddenly saw Erik and made a scrambling U-turn. Erik had captured the whole event on camera in sequence.
After many years of striding through field, stream, woods, and weather Erik had photographed his first fox in the hunt field—and a remarkable shot it turned out to be.
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Erik’s creative photographs can be viewed and purchased on his web site.