November 27th, 2015: The Perfect Shot

[xoxoxoBruce]

Prize winning photographs, you know, the kind you and I never take, are commonly written off by we chewers of the sour grape, as being in the right place at the right time, in other words, luck. Some is true, but in the other 99.999% the photographer knew at least approximately what they wanted, figured out what had to be done to get it, then put the time and effort to be in the right place at the right time. Even then it's just a chance to try, not a guaranty.

Here's a perfect shot of a Kingfisher hitting his reflection on the water. Lucky wasn't he?


Not luck, dedication and stubbornness befitting a Scot.

Nailing the perfect shot sometimes requires a lot of patience. Scottish photographer Alan McFadyen would know: he spent an estimated 6 years, 4,200 hours, and 720,000 exposures trying to nail the perfect symmetrical shot of a kingfisher diving into its reflection.

More than just finding a Kingfisher and waiting for it to dive. How often will it dive into water so smooth you can see it's refection? Then the light has to be right for a reflection. Being a wild bird you can't get too close so you need a longer lens, which has to be focused on where the bird hits the water. Because Kingfishers dive at up to 25 mph it moves across the field of view in a split second, and you can't pan because you only want the hitting the reflection shot.
Lucky bastard... hand me some of those grapes.

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