Great wildlife photos can involve hours of waiting in woods, hiding in a blind, maybe getting soaked or frozen, until a wild animal comes within range.

For Leslie Otto, it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. In her car, on a lonely, snowy road.

The photograph she captured is the grand-prize winner among NWTraveler's Reader Photos of the Year.

It was Thanksgiving Day. The 24-year-old Bellevue resident, recently home from a two-year Peace Corps stint in Burkina Faso, West Africa, had suggested to her sister and parents that instead of fixing a big feast, they go snowshoeing in Mount Rainier National Park.

They were driving to the Narada Falls trailhead when they spied a fox in the road ahead.

The fox ran into woods, but when Otto's family stopped their van to see if the animal might reappear, it emerged and approached their vehicle.

"I said, 'Oh my gosh, it's right there, I need to take a picture!' " Otto recalls. She grabbed her Canon Rebel T3i, opened the van's side door and snapped off eight or nine shots. "It was so close, I was afraid it was going to jump into the car!"

No time to check camera settings. Otto just shot with the camera on "auto." The result, though, was stunning. Tack sharp.

However, "it's kind of a bittersweet photo," Otto said after learning that this type of fox is in trouble.

She and her sister, who is studying to be a park ranger, learned online that this species, the rare Cascade fox (Vulpes vulpes cascadensis), has become too habituated to humans. Known to live only around Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, the foxes have learned to get food from people, "begging" along roadways in Mount Rainier's Paradise visitor area. The national park earlier this month announced it has launched a research project to assess visitor impacts on Cascade foxes. Among other problems, foxes have been hit by cars, and the interaction could endanger people, too.

"The fox was waiting for us to give it food," Otto said.

Photographing wildlife comes naturally to her. She grew up in a home with Ansel Adams prints on the wall, has worked as a river guide and backpacking guide, and calls her love of the outdoors "one of the most passionate things for me."

In 2009, when she finished a psychology degree from Gonzaga University (where she took a photography class), a camera was her graduation gift from her father, who enjoys photography as a hobby. These days, when not exploring the outdoors, Otto helps with after-school arts activities at Boys & Girls Clubs of Bellevue.

What will she do with her award from The Seattle Times, a $250 gift certificate from Tall's Camera?

"I want to replace my tripod that melted in Burkina Faso," she said.

Otto survived the African heat, but the glue that held together her tripod didn't.

Brian J. Cantwell: 206-748-5724 or bcantwell@seattletimes.com