There’s something profound about coming eye-to-eye with a non-human creature, especially a wild one. It shrinks the distance between you and them, the species difference, the size difference, the physical differences, and more.

Of course I don’t know exactly how the other creature experiences our encounter. I know I spooked a white-tail deer by locking eyes with her. Up went her flag and off she went. But she had good reason to be afraid. I was holding a compound bow with an arrow nocked. This barred owl, on the other hand, sat quietly and stared back at me and my camera.

I could do an exhibit–actually, would love to–of my eye-to-eye photos: a ‘gator who followed me, a golden-crowned kinglet who leaned down from a branch to peer into my eyes, a snake in shallow water as surprised by our encounter as I was, even a praying mantis. And more.

It is somehow equalizing, a mutual recognition of mutual creatureliness. And it makes it impossible for me to be callous about the other’s quality of life.