ABBEVILLE – Toddy Guidry’s photography career is starting to bear fruit.

Seriously.

Guidry, whose sister Marcelle is the manager of Palmetto Island State Park, visited the park this weekend to see his sister and left with a clear picture of a black bear.

“I actually got very close,” Guidry said. “We were driving down the road and when we got by the dumpsters we saw a line of trash from an open dumpster going into the woods.”

The culprit? A young, male black bear.

“I figured it was a bear,” Guidry said. “So I called Marcelle at her house, and she told me there was a bear in the area.

“I figured we probably just missed it.”

Guidry, who had his neighbor in the truck with him, turned off his vehicle and waited.

“I waited and then I could hear it,” Guidry said, who is from Abbeville. “It came out of the woods and got within about 10 yards of my truck. I have a 300-millimeter zoom on my camera and it wouldn’t focus because it was so close.”

The bear then walked up the road, which allowed Guidry to get a better view with his camera.

“When I took the picture I was probably about 75 yards from it,” Guidry said.

While it would not be advisable to go anywhere near the bear, Guidry said it was not an aggressive animal.

“It didn’t spook,” Guidry said. “It seemed really tame. I never got out of the truck when it was really close.

“When it was about 75 yards away I yelled ‘hey’ to get its attention and it looked right at me. I was able to get a good shot.”

In all, Guidry got a good view of something he had never seen in such close proximity.

“Marcelle told me they have caught it on trail cameras,” Guidry said. “People have seen them around. I had never seen it except for a couple for fleeting seconds near Cypremort Point, running across the road.

“We watched it for a good 15 minutes before it went back into the woods. By that time it was around 8 p.m. and we left.”

Guidry also snapped a close-up of a doe during his trip.