I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record. I’m a huge advocate of taking your camera with you…everywhere.
I drag mine through airports, take it on business trips, pack it into work everyday, and throw it in the jeep when I head to the grocery store. You just never know when you might get lucky and get a shot that teaches you something that you never knew.
You might learn that…
…There’s something hiding in the tall grass…
…Marmots have buck teeth…
…Some chickens can bend metal with just the power of their minds…
…Prairie dogs love to play tiny green harmonicas…
…African parrots not only copy voices, they do movie impressions too – this Linda Blair from the Exorcist…
…Woodpeckers have really long tongues…
…Hummingbird tongues are even longer…
…Squirrels like to sit on tiny benches…
…Canaries can be wistful…
…Deer can be kind if vain…
…Titmice like to hang out…
…Someone is watching you…
…Chickadees can be intimidating…
It’s great to tell stories about the wonderful things you see every day, but a picture says so much better!
the eff stop 
Great shots here!
Thank you!
Outstanding photos!
Thank you!
Beautiful shots! Great captions, so insightful! It’s like you see into their little hearts! I keep my camera in the car, close at hand too. You wouldn’t believe the odd places I’ve found cemeteries.
Thanks – I bet you find them all over the place – here they are in all the hills and hollows and churchyards. I found a very small one in the woods hiking, looked like it was from the turn of the 20th century.
Wow! I didn’t know chickens could bend metal with the power of their minds… I’m going to have to watch (out for) them in the future! 🙂 Brilliant post! (And I see that I’m not the only one thinking of the Exorcist lately…!
Thanks Val, I saw your Exorcist bird yesterday and cracked up – my parrot is not nearly as possessed as yours was 🙂
I agree wholeheartedly, Lorri. The only place I don’t take mine is on the bus to the food market. I took mine on a long country drive yesterday when my SIL invited me to keep her company on a long drive down to the south west of Melbourne.
I even took some shots while we were driving at 100kms down the freeway.
Love this series of images in this post, especially those cute little prairie dogs & squirrels.
That last image with the outstretched wings framing the 2 chickadees is very special – great capture.
That last one is the “lucky shot” for sure. I didn’t even see the chickadee when I was focussing – snap and he was there. I actually do carry mine to the grocery – most of the white tail deer shots I have made were taken on the way home from the store 🙂
Beautiful, and I agree with everyone above, these aren’t lucky shots, they’re the product of a skilled artist 🙂
Also, is it wrong that I never knew birds have tongues? 😮
LOL – I knew they had tongues because I had seen them inside parrot beaks – I didn’t know they were so long until I took a gazillion hummingbird shots!
I might be a little envious of that hummingbird. :p
LOL!
🙂
Your photos are brilliant!
Thanks Elizabeth!
One should never be without it.. so many times I see the most fantastic things, without the camera being with me… your captures are a testament as to why we should have it in our hand at all times… magnificent captures absolutely outstanding…
Thanks so much Bulldog. I was in Dallas yesterday shooting blackbirds in a parking lot. There are amazing things everywhere, and I feel lost without my camera there to document it!
Absolutely FANTASTIC photos! The captions gave me a huge laugh!
Thanks Jules, I’m always good for a laugh 🙂
This is a beautiful series, and there is so much more than luck here. There is also great skill and a fantastic eye to go with the luck and the camera you carry around. 🙂 (I carry mine everywhere too.)
I love your walks with your camera, Robin. Your work shows how “at one” you are with your camera 🙂
What a great collection! I think that’s the perfect culmination of preparation, skill and luck as described above.
Thanks Lyle, sometimes a set just comes together for no reason 🙂 I agree with you about luck, except on that last shot – total luck.
And sometimes we all get lucky on shots – it helps even the score for some of the others that should have turned out!!
Ain’t it the truth!
Had no idea about the prairie dogs – wonder where they find such tiny green harmonicas – that, my friend, is hilarious! And love love love your photos! K
I’m sure he’s playing a Honer, I know they have a green model 🙂 Thanks!
I once tried to rehabilitate a baby woodpecker. In the end, it killed itself by stabbing itself in the head with that indeed…..very long tongue. Didn’t like being caged I suppose. Lol, just had to tell you that!
Wow, Shari, I had no idea that that you’d do that. These red-bellies are such sweet birds.
You know, even if I carried a camera with me everywhere, I could not get shots like this. Because, well first I need a good camera. Second I need to go someplace! Third, I need to be good at it. 😉
Wonderful shots!
LOL – thanks. You know I shot a lot of these at home. Shoot what you have, even if its your phone. I guarantee if you shoot 10 shots a day for a month you will see growth and you will look at images differently
What great fun pictures — love them all, especially the elk (buck?) in the first one.
Thanks Elyse, yes that’s a bull elk – odd how elk are cows and bulls when most antelope are does and bucks. He was a monster – the grass was probably 6 feet deep in that spot.
But I don’t consider you a lucky photographer — you’re a smart one. And one who brings along her camera. I’m forever out seeing wonderful things — especially when we’re in Maine — and trying to get a snap of it with my iPhone. Just not the same. Last summer, an eagle flew 15 feet above me with a fish in his talons…I only have the picture in my head!
You know the iPhone does have it’s limits 🙂 Maybe you do make your own luck – but every now and then you get something you hadn’t expected.
I love that last picture with the bird in the background..wings spanned!
That one is really where I got the title for the post, that was pure luck – I think it’s my favorite shot in months. I had no idea the Chicky was even there until I reviewed shots on my iPad.
It’s like an artist planned it in their head. One would expect to see a painting like this but not a photo!
You just can’t plan on an invading chickadee 🙂
Your photography never ceases to amaze me! No luck here….you just rock that camera!Awesome!!
Thanks Paula, I actually do get lucky, things like that last shot you can’t prepare for, you don’t even know you got anything interesting until after the fact 🙂
Right place at the right time! Guess that would be a blessing!
Definitely!
“Lucky” Isn’t that the place where skill and preparation come together? These are beautiful, my friend. Thank you for sharing them.
Russ
I think I agree with that definition Russ – even so, you gotta have your camera 🙂 thanks for the kind words.