by Andy Molloy, staff photographerr

How did you get that photo?

If the answer includes brutal conditions, an odd species and long odds, I will regale you.

The reply often takes longer than the time to make the photograph. A general rule usually applies: I just walk out my door. Nature abounds along the Kennebec River in Hallowell.

I've spotted foxes, fishers, a bobcat, deer, moles, beaver and otters. Yet the moose along the Kennebec River have eluded me.

The rolling hills and large bogs along the Kennebec River give moose ample shelter. They are rarely encountered and are always challenging to photograph. The Mainers among us understand the critter and the conditions.

George Myers, however, is from a flat land. He relocated from Ohio before assuming the duties of the acting city editor at the Kennebec Journal a few weeks ago.

He told me that biologists at Inland Fisheries and Wildlife were concerned about moose presenting a hazard to snowmobilers. Would I be so kind, he asked, to photograph a moose when I encountered one that day?

I looked out the window at the snow falling. I had not seen a moose in six months. And that one was discovered in Jackman riding in the bed of a pickup.

Before I replied Megan Robinson spoke up. She works as a clerk at the KJ performing a dozen tasks each day that produces the daily miracle called a newspaper. "There's a moose wandering around Sidney," she said. "They saw him an hour ago."

I arrived in Sidney that afternoon and knocked on a few doors. Nobody had seen a moose on the River Road. One kind lady told me as she pointed across from her farm they wander around that field. So I wandered around the field myself and discovered fresh moose tracks in the snow.

I meandered for about a mile in my snowshoes before encountering the moose napping beneath an oak, right along the River Road. I returned to my truck, drove to the moose's bed and photographed it in recline.

George was delighted to learn that the moose was relaxing in a field. A flat land indeed.

To order reprints of photos, click here.