Last Night I Had the Photographer's Dream

In the minutes before waking, here is the dream I had.  I'll supplement with some photos from my collection.

I'm hiking on what is most likely an old loggers' road somewhere with mountains peeking just out a bit in the distance beyond where the trail leads into the woods and the day is starting to fade.  The light is that perfect gold that is never happening when I'm anyplace really good.  I stop and look around, desperate for something to shoot in such a glorious moment.  There is a little pond nearby, so I move down a slight incline through some ankle high plants to see if a nice shot comes into view down there.

I still don't see anything hopeful but decide I'll take a few shots anyway.  As I put down my camera bag I suddenly realize I smell animal feces.  I look around, keep sniffing.  Something dog-like?  I see a pile on the trail and move back a bit toward it.  Definitely not anything large and scary like bear or bison scat.

I turn back toward my camera bag on the ground just as a small coyote or maybe fox-like animal with dark fur around the face comes into view from behind a dip in the landscape.  He moves towards my bag, gives me a warning bark/growl and then proceeds to STAY THERE and alternate between investigating my bag and eyeing me.

I fumble with the camera in my hands.  Oh no!  It's covered in a layer of hardened-on sand.  (Talk about a nightmare!)  I gently but quickly brush it away and try to take a shot.  No go, lens motor makes an unhappy little sound.  I clean it up some more and try again.  My elation has turned to anxiety.  The animal is still around, but how much longer can I expect it to stay and the light to hold?

The camera is now clean but for some reason the lens is drooping off the front and I can't get it reattached properly.  It's at this point that I start to wake up and if I wasn't so sleepy I'd be laughing out loud.  I've just had the wildlife photographer's equivalent of a young man's dream of being propositioned by Scarlett Johannson and not being able to perform!

I'm wondering, does this mean I'm a "real" photographer now?  Usually my dreams are about mundane things like washing dishes or being at work answering patient's questions or helping them choose eyewear. (I know, it's just awful to wake up from those things, let me tell ya.)  Since I tend to dream about what I do and not what I want to do, photography must be what I "do".

Most people I've heard talk about dreams have strange sequences of out-of-this-world events transpire in their nighttime landscape.  What kind of dreams do you wake up from?