Missed opportunities

Dave Semmens

Dave Semmens

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Just been out for a nice walk with the other half and our dog. I am very new to this photography lark and spent most of the walk missing shots on various wildlife from insects to birds.

Walking back to the car I noticed some young rabbits out in a field and managed to get myself leant on a wooden gate to try and get some photos. I spent about 5 minutes waiting for their heads to pop up and even kept clicking my tounge and squeaking to try and get a reaction from the rabbits. I didn't look up from the viewfinder once.

When I finally did look up there was a Robin sat on the gate post about 10 foot away from me. I managed to just get it into focus as it flew away. Didn't even get a shot off.

My wife then told me that the Robin had landed about a minute before I saw it and had been trying to figure out what I was up to - it kept chirping at me and fluffing its feathers up (it had just been bathing in a puddle from my brief glimpse of it). I think it got fed up of waiting for its photo taking and went home :)

I managed to get pictures of rabbits ears and a lot of grass. I need to remember to look up now and again and see what is happening around me :)

I moaned at my wife all the way home about missing the opportunity and that got me thinking that other photographers must have had the same happen to them, but probably with much more interesting subjects than my humble Robin.


Dave.
 
Yes,was busy with green finches in a tree and on turning round i saw a fox vanishing into the undergrowth,flipping heck i said ;) to my wife missed that, her reply was its been sitting there all the time you where watching the birds.
 
Earlier this year I was trying my hand at hare photography. One afternoon I'd spent 90 minutes in my bag hide and not seen any action. By this point I was feeling both thirsty and unoptimisitic about them making an appearence before the light failed, so I decided to quickly nip out to get reclaim my bag I'd left lying on the ground elsewhere. I get to my bag, pick it up, turn around, and see a pair of hares chasing about right in front of where I'd left my camera on the tripod. Ninety seconds more patience and I'd have got some decent photos....
 
I went on a trip to India in 2011 partly for business, but for 4 days safari at the end of the holiday in Ranthambore... I left my sodding camera bag at home! I managed to get an employee to post it over and my camera arrived on the second day of safari... The first day of safari we went out in the afternoon, found a female tigress and followed her for about 45 minutes. She began hunting, chased a Chital through some forest and made a kill no more than 40 feet from the vehicle in plain sight! Needless to say as enjoyable an experience as it was i was pretty devastated to not have my camera!

Needless to say for the next 3 days (once the camera had arrived) we barely got a glimpse of a tiger and the only one we did see was half a mile away disappearing into some bushes on a hillside!
 
I managed to do something very similar on Sunday as well. There was a swan just swimming around and minding its own business. A couple had let their dog swim in the lake and it was getting quite close to the swan.

Earlier last week I had seen some great shots of a swan reared up with its wings outstretched. I knew this was on the cards with the dog getting closer.

I set the camera up and focused on the swan. It was hissing and not very happy. I stayed on it - ready on the shutter to fire a burst of shots. The dog owners retrieved their dog and the swan went back to drifting around. I put the camera down and turned round to see if I could see anything interesting further up the bank. Thirty seconds later my wife comes trotting up to show me her photo of the swan reared up with its wings outstretched. The moment I had turned round - it had performed for her and her phone camera.

To cap it all off - I forgot that the camera was in burst mode and got 7 identical shots of a slug :)

Anyway - I have now found a wildlife subject that I can hone my reaction skills on:


DSC01739 by davepsemmens, on Flickr
 
Thankyou Dave, this thread inspired me to join up.

Bought a 600d plus 18-55 kit lens plus 55-250mm.

Went to St Albans Verulamium with the mrs and boy the other day. After taking many photos of the little guy, and getting some nice shots of the ever present geese/ducks/Moor hens/gulls etc, I decided to roll a cigarette.

Once I had the tobacco and filter in place, a gaggle of geese came in to land on the (large) duck pond.

Easily the best non child photo op of the day, and completely missed it.

I did get a half decent shot of a 'hornet mimic hoverfly' though.

 
My real answer to the thread's question is all the times I decide to stay in bed having had my pre-dawn alarm go off.
 
Fussyfez - glad you decided to join in and well done on the hover fly.

I am still missing shots, but it all gets stored in my list of things to capture on another day :) I recently managed to capture a swan rearing up and shaking its wings and some geese on their way into land. I think I can still improve on what I have and there is always another day

Here are the geese - the one towards the right almost did a 360 spin on the way in :)


Tora! Tora! Tora! by davepsemmens, on Flickr

And the Swan :)


Swan at Manvers lake by davepsemmens, on Flickr

I am sure they can be improved on and I will be out trying every free moment I get.

The W - I can't blame you for having a lay in but at the moment the heat at 5-30am is much easier to bear than at midday ;)

Dave.
 
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Great shots Dave (in my humble opinion), those geese look rather haphazard to me! Great shot.
 
Having taken quite a few shots of geese in flight it is interesting that most of the time they are almost in sync with each other (wing positions) They obviously find landing a bit harder :)

I find that the Canadian geese are very vocal before something "big" happens. If you hear them start to make a racket then get the camera ready as something is about to happen. The Swan had been preening itself for a few minutes and from previous ecperience that is normally followed by a big wing flap.
So hopefully - the more you get to know your subject - the less missed opportunities :)
 
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Welcome to wildlife photography :D
Waiting in a hide, waiting for the fog to lift, avoiding the rain etc...
Then there is the sudden opportunity spotted from the corner of your eye ... if only you could have set it up a bit better ... ah well :)


View attachment 17487
 
I think many of us have had this happen to us several times, but the more you get out the more you get lucky. I remember looking for water voles, waiting for hours and not seeing one then moving my foot and scaring one off that was barely a foot away behind a tuff of grass on the bank. The only way I knew it was there was when I heard the plop! It was probably there for ages watching me whilst it munched on grass.
 
I was at my local reservoir on Saturday and was planning on standing up on the dam head as the early morning sun would be behind me and anything flying off the reservoir would have to fly straight over me with the sun lighting them up. As I was making my way up the bank an old man out walking his dog asked about my camera. We stood and talked for 20 minutes and in that time I saw 2 herons and a flock of geese go up the reservoir and over the dam wall. There is always next time and the old man was really interested in the wildlife I had captured in the last few weeks. He also told me about a few things he had seen on his early jaunts out with his dog. The info was useful as it may lead to more areas for me to look into in the future.

I like to think on these opportunities as more delayed than missed now :)
 
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