A fortunate accident

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There’s no denying the luck I got with this shot, a welcome and fortunate fluke. I’ll take it, bad luck happens too!
Settings:    1/6 sec    |    f/13    |    ISO 200    |    150mm

If you check out the settings I’ve shown above, you’ll see the longish shutter speed and a small aperture of f/13. The reason for this was because I had been taking scenic shots in which I wanted front to back focus and a small aperture is required for that.

I was ready to go home and on my way back to the car while walking across a river bridge. Suddenly a stranger showed interest in my photography when he saw the camera gear I was carrying, so I stopped and we had a little chat.

It was at that time that I spotted the Little Egret wading in the shallow water of the river, so I tried to sneak up and take a shot but I had totally forgot about my settings. Just as I pressed the shutter, it took off and when I see the result on the back of my camera I got quite exited. Had I thought about my settings prior to shooting, I would have set my aperture to f/2.8 to enable as short a shutter speed as possible, I was going for a sharp shot.

As I said, sometimes you can get lucky and I certainly was. I think I owe that stranger some thanks for saying hello to have a chat. I don’t think I’ve ever been grateful for having messed up settings before, always a first time I guess.

The bird didn’t go far and a look at my meta data revealed I shot the following image exactly 20 seconds later. It seemed longer than that at the time.

Not quite as dramatic and ever so slightly disappointed with the bright reflections from the ripples in the water but I’m still very pleased with the shot. I seldom shoot wildlife, and a Little Egret is not a very common bird for me to see, so I’m glad I got at least one sharp shot of the bird.

I guess the moral of the story is don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but you already know that right?

Before I go, I’ll share the scenic shots I got that morning. (Click on thumbnails for a larger view)

Thanks for reading

Richee

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