You Don't Always Get The Shot

For every three shots I publish to my website, I probably take 150 or so shots. I cannot decide if that means I'm not very good or if I am way too picky about what I will publish. I am hoping it is the latter, but I think the truth is about the 80/20 rule. Most of the time I am very picky and sometimes I'm not very good. What really hurts is when presented with a potentially great shot and I miss it.

I remember when I first received my current camera. Like a big kid at Christmas, I took it out and I was at a park in Jupiter, Florida, and saw a raccoon swimming toward an island. It was right in front of me and it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime shots. I focused and fired off several shots and thought to myself, "I can't wait to see those when I get home!"

Well, I arrived home and uploaded the camera images and all the shots I had taken were nearly all black. It was like I was shooting in the dark. I learned two things that day. The first was to always check the in-camera replay so I can get an idea of what the shot looks like and more importantly, I spent a week watching every tutorial on the camera I could get my hands on.

I love taking action shots of animals and birds in motion. I have gotten pretty good at it. But in the past and still once in a while, I get so excited about what I am seeing that I do not breathe and make sure I fire off good shots. There were a lot of lost opportunities.

My wife always says that if I was successful on everything I see, then I would not have anything left to shoot for or--if you will--lust after. Perhaps. But there is always something new such as different behaviors, angles, light and so forth.

Still...every time I am in the field or in a blind, or sitting in my chair, I will mess up at least a few times. I have a lot of improvement in me still.

The bottom line is that in all honesty, for every great shot I take, there will be others with wings cut off or necks and heads or the focus or light will not be right. For my skill and experience level, it is part of the photography life. What really hurts is when I only had one shot to get it right because of movement or whatever. There was no second chance. Just to show you what I mean, check out this photo below of a beautiful shot of a Zebra Longwing Butterfly. It was gorgeous and the light was right...and I only had one shot and blew it.