“Do your devotions make you happy?
Is your life a joyous song?”
Deng Ming-Dao
It’s an interesting thought for a creative photographer. A simple fact really. Do you enjoy it?
Does it make you happy? Sometimes, the pressures of conforming, the need to make images that meet certain standards, or the complexity of striving with a subject in the wrong light, the wrong place or the wrong time, means we struggle to make the photo with a feeling of joy.
Then for its own reasons, it can become a drudgery.
At other times, the light is right, the subject cooperative and a feeling of joy is replaced by celebration when you gaze at the LCD and there it is. Just as you saw it.
A morning at Lake Lorne looking for Latham’s Snipe, could be just a drudgery, or it could be thrilling.
EE and I had made the trip out just after sunup, and had a chance to look through a number of areas where the birds might have been resting up. Finding a Snipe is truly like finding the sixpence in the Christmas pud. The trouble is finding them, and then getting close enough for a good shot.
I had been using the 500mm PF on the D500, but the speed of the little birds, the complexity of the background and the slowness of the operator, meant I was missing many a shot. By mid-morn I changed back to the 300mm f/4. Need to be closer, but the wider angle of view meant I could get the bird in frame quicker.
I saw the bird poke its head out of the thick grass, and had a fair idea of its location. Closer, pause, closer, pause. No head poking out. Perhaps it scampered through the grass further away.
“Scrassrckh”
Airborne in front of me, raise camera press shutter, first one blurry, focus locks, nailed it. Bird is away, but its the closest I’ve been to one so far.
Time to sing a joyous song.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER - --doesn't mean I'm LOST 
Bravo! You definitely nailed it.
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How thrilling and ecstatic
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Thanks Jeremy, sometimes luck, sometimes just the right moment, and sometimes come home empty. All good reasons to go out.
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A fabulous capture, David! Never an easy ‘get’. I do enjoy getting out in the field to be able to photograph what I want, how I want. Does it always happen that way – no, but it is still fun. Particularly in the digital age where ‘dud’ shots don’t cost!
Must head down to Sneydes today some time to see if the rather intrusive pyrotechnic display at Vic Uni has upset the birds, BsK’s particularly!
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Must have been a big blast, as we heard it way over at our place.
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A superb shot Dave. Not an easy one to get.
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Yes, a wonderful find David and certainly something to rejoice over! you managed to get a good shot even as it left.
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Hello Ashley, tricky birds, perhaps why I appreciate them. Just like to get some out in the open.
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The Bird looks really beautiful on the dark background and yes – your joyous song resonates pleasantly in my eyes.
Recently I’ve been using my 500mm PF with 1.4 TC a lot but two days ago I felt so desperate to get those feathered flying objects that I took the TC off and put it in my pocket. 300mm would be even better but it was sleeping in my car some 1km away. Lazy me.
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G;day Adam, I’ve used the 1.4 on the 500 quite a lot, and it works flawlessly. However, it begs the question of having a shorter lens for just such times, and is another thing to carry. Probably never sort it out.
I do like the repsonsiveness of the 300mm without TC.
Perhaps DxO PhotoLab will make up for the missing extension.
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