I love them too. One time when I was camping, and taking a walk around the lake, I came upon one just a few feet in front of me pecking on a tree (I’d been hearing him and was hoping to see him). I ran all the way back to my tent to grab my camera, ran back... he was still there!!! So, OCD me is fiddling with the composition and zooming in trying to get it JUST RIGHT, and literally 1 second before I pushed the shutter button HE FLEW AWAY.
This happens all too often. It’s infuriating. The classic “the one that got away” story. A long time ago, after experiencing that same problem too often, I decided on a “get the shot” method. Don’t fuss too much, just get a shot, and once that is done, with less panic, start refining the details, continuing to shoot with each refinement. It’s equally important to live the experience while you have the chance, aside from trying to get a picture. Unlike photographs, pictures in the mind just get better over time. [emoji3]
A couple of days ago I had a very rare opportunity to photograph a red fox right at the roadside. I had my window down and iPhone out in seconds and the fox stopped walking and sat down and waited. It had that expression, “ oh no, busted. My camouflage is hopeless against the snow”. Then I couldn’t get the darn camera to focus!#%* Tap, tap, focus will you! Miles out of focus. I have no idea why it wouldn’t focus. Switch camera app. That’s better. Another car from the opposite direction also stopped, about 15 feet ahead of me and the fox got up and casually crossed the road between us and went off towards the woods. My mother always told me to look both ways before crossing the road. I thought I had bungled the whole thing but I actually had many good frames. I remember thinking afterward that if I had picked up my dslr I would have just pressed the shutter. No turning it on, no launching a camera app. Just press the button, even with gloves on. It’s always on, just sleeping. I could zoom and see the auto-focus while looking through the viewfinder, etc. Of course it could just as easily have had a wide angle lens on, etc. But it was at home. [emoji847]
While all this was going on no other cars came along. Obviously a quiet country road.
Not cropped. Tweaked a bit in the Photos app. And one of my favourites I used on the Time Stamp 110 banner.