Patience, Determination and Talent



If you’ve been following my blog posts, you know that I love to photograph birds!  When eight Tundra Swans decided to visit the Prescott Lakes, I was ready with my tripod and Nikon camera with the long lens (Tamron 200-500).  I had my binoculars, hiking shoes and Peter (my resident birder)! 
Tundra Swans breed in the Arctic tundra and migrating south to warmer weather.  It is really unusual for them to be this far south.
We went to Watson Lake and saw four of the swans near the far shore….too far for any picture.  Then we went to Willow Lake and saw none.  The next day we retraced our steps and found four at Watson Lake and four at Willow Lake.  The ones at Willow were near enough for photography.   I carefully walked toward the water close enough to ‘shoot’ but not to disturb them.   Took lots of pictures in different exposures and happily left.  When I got home and looked, I realized the feathers weren’t as defined as I wanted and were overexposed.  I needed to try again! (No, I'm not including those photos!)  Fortunately, the swans were enjoying our lakes and weather and I had time.
Back to the lakes again!  This time there were no swans at Watson Lake and they had all flown into Willow.  On the long narrow outcrop, the eight swans stood (most on one leg with their heads tucked under the wing) or rested on the ground (with their heads tucked under their wing). 
This time I decided to go even closer as they seemed to ignore the humans watching them.  And this time I waited and waited and…..waited …until one of them stretched his neck and his leg.  Snap! Snap!  Snap!   And this time when I looked at my pictures I was very pleased and wanted to share them with you.
If I counted up the hours of watching and waiting, it would equal a good day’s work plus!  In my opinion all wildlife photography requires patience and determination equal to talent! 

And as I think about it, patience and determination combine with talent to create much that is worthwhile in life.
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Comments

  1. Truscale29January 15, 2012 at 1:35 PM

    You have all three of these qualities and many more! Great pictures!

    ReplyDelete

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