I love taking pictures. I have a passion for capturing moments in time. I love looking at others' photographs and strive to perfect my skills to produce beautiful images.
I've always been fascinated by wildlife - but animals (birds) in the wild don't pose. You have to be at the right spot at the right time. Added elements to capture skilled images are getting the right light, having the right lens, picking the proper exposure, using the correct aperture setting, selecting the proper white balance, etc. But then there's the kicker - panning a bird in flight. Birds never fly straight, they never fly close enough, they never fly slow enough - but sometimes you can get lucky.
And on this day I got lucky. I was watching this Great White Egret flying along the river. I was practicing following him with the camera as he flew. I was trying to focus and click images to practice getting a clear image and not just a blur. Then, to my delight the egret dove at the river, caught a fish and flew away. And - I captured those images. Not expertly. Not totally clear. Certainly not close enough (I covet a powerful telephoto lens - way out of my budget at this time). But good enough to be excited when I saw the results.
So - this was my first attempt. I'll keep at it. And hopefully I'll get that "perfect" capture - someday. But for this moment - this matter of a few seconds - I'm happy.
