Got Him!

When I started this challenge, I asked my audience for advice about what they would like to see in the blog if I was now going to be spending a lot of time here.  I actually got a few responses (which I now see as miraculous, since I have come to understand how much of this effort is more aptly described as talking to myself than actual blogging...but I digress.)  One suggestion was to write more about my bird photography.  So, this one is for  you (you know who you are...if you're still out there.)

Since the wonderful, unexpected owl encounters of last month, I've been pretty much skunked when it comes to even seeing anything photo-worthy, much less getting decent shots of any of my favorite subjects.  I have taken so many bad, out-of-focus pictures of uninteresting encounters that I've begun to doubt myself and my abilities once again. 

The universe seems want to hold me in a pattern of "If you go out looking for a shot, you aren't going to get one, but you'll encounter plenty if you don't have your camera or you're unprepared."

I kind of sneaked one past the Universe yesterday, though.  I went out to the dike to take a walk in the not-rain, and foolishly brought my camera along. So of course, everything I saw was too far away, or poorly lit, or behind a bunch of branches or reeds...except this one.  And the funny thing is, I was actually lining up shots of the apples on a leafless winter tree, when I saw birds flittering around in the branches and decided it might be fun to focus on one of those.  Snapped off the picture, took it home and put it on the laptop, and saw that I had captured one of the sparrows digging in to a feast of apple.  I swear, if that was the shot I had intended, I never would have got it. 

So I thank the Universe for a bit of serendipity.