Photography and Nature: When You Get Really Lucky — The "Money Shot"steemCreated with Sketch.

Whereas I have been messing around with cameras since I was 12 years old, I would hardly call myself "A Photographer."

However, I am pretty enthusiastic, and so I tend to always carry a camera, and I have a great love of nature. For the most part, I just take "stills" and those are what you've been seeing as illustrations in my posts for the past couple of years... and if you've followed me here from elsewhere... for the past twenty years.

Of course, it's nice to be able to take great macro shots of flowers and insects... but then there is other forms of wildlife, and particularly birds, which is where I get to the idea of capturing "the money shot."

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Brown pelicans, Big Sur, CA

A Matter of Luck and Timing

The brown pelicans (above) had been sitting on a rocky outcropping for a while and then they took off, as a very large Pacific wave struck. The shot itself is perhaps not that remarkable; what makes it is the fact that the near pelican took off right into a seagull and all but knocked it into the waves.

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Unexpected collision

Just goes to show you that traffic collisions happen pretty much everywhere.

Now, we get lots of Bald Eagles around our house, but I rarely have the opportunity to catch them doing anything aside from "sitting" or "gliding overhead."

This one suddenly launched itself from the tall tree towards (I presume) some bird or small animal on the beach below. Again, this was simply a pure matter of timing.

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Diving Eagle

Birds are generally the most challenging because they tend to be both far away, and "in motion," a lot of the time. But occasionally, they also allow for some stunning stills, like this nesting cormorant in Denmark... that I somehow got close enough to, with its near-grown young in the nest.

When I lived in Texas we had lots of cormorants on the nearby lake, but in 15 years I never got a really good shot, as they tended to be very shy birds.

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Cormorant on the nest, Denmark

Of course, not all "money shots" are of birds and wild animals. Sometimes you get something a lot closer to home... like the following shot of my cat Brady in mid-yawn.

He looks pretty ferocious, but he was actually a very gentle, sweet and mild-mannered cat.

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Brady, yawning...

If you don't think it's difficult to capture a cat in mid-yawn, think again! Cats tend to be very vigilant and curious creatures... and when you have the camera around, they are more likely to be very alert than yawning.

Anyway, just felt like throwing a "light and fluffy" post out there... we'll resume our normal programming later!

Thanks for reading!

How about YOU? Are your best photos planned, or more likely to be a combination of luck and being in the right place at the right moment? What sorts of subjects do you usually photograph? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190310 22:00 PST

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These are some excellent shots, and you're so right about cats. I have a hard time shooting Snickers and I don't ever use a flash. Nice post. 👍

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To be truthful, I have a hard time shooting "objects" in stills and making it look like anything... nature is just a little more cooperative in that sense; I worked with the ambient light, and that's it...

Very beautiful pictures. Verkligen vackert. You have a great eye and the collision was a great shot. Never underestimate luck and being at the right place and time.

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It was one of those that was basically a blur of motion... and I didn't realize what the camera had captured till I got home and looked at it!

A post talking about money shots and birds...I'm really confused...

Sorry 'bout that. Really didn't mean to send your brain into an infinite loop... seriously!

It's the price I pay when I make some dollars writing filth adult orientated content, and then zip over to steemit.lol

Yup. Pretty sure you'd been doing something related to porn adult entertainment...

I was thinking that Brady got hungry after he saw the bird photos.

You have a point there. He did sometimes bring birds in the house... including some "semi-living" ones...

That's why they lay 5 or 6 eggs at one time and even twice in a season. Birds I mean. To keep cats full, healthy and happy.

You' ve been selected always in support of good work

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- Ryunosuke Satoro.

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We like "Light & Fluffy"........ True Story

Did Brady look like our Astro.....? I know Astro is a strange name for a female cat. But a child named her. It stuck. And She is now 2+ yrs old and responds to it.

We call Her Ass. Cuz She kinda is one. Chapter on Her coming soon in the Sammi Story. Maybe several chapters as the "Astro" trucking kitty experiment was a complete failure.......

Here is a photo of the 2 of them a few yrs back. We were sitting in S. Seattle. Yakima i think...? This was just before a fight began.

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