Are You a Coulda, Shoulda or a Happy Camper?
Last Saturday, I went to Reifel Bird Sanctuary, things didn't go well.
Sandhill Cranes Cleaning Themselves click on image for gallery
- It was “supposed” to be nice weather. It turned out to be dark and grey. I know it's December on the West Coast of Canada, the place of the tempered rain forest, and the keyword here is rain.
- I've been having problems on and off with my Sigma 120-400. On Saturday, the auto-focus would not work at all (that will be the topic of another blog post.) The lens kept on hunting back and forth… It's the lens, not the camera, my other lenses work properly. I had to switch to manual focus. I still use manual focus, but it's for static subjects. I don't think that I have used manual focus to track anything since the mid-1990s.
- I missed many good opportunities of birds in flight. The one that rankles me the most is of 4 snow geese, flying very low, with me being at the same level as they were flying. They were flying over a small dike and I was on top of a small mound. It's rare, I could even say exceptional.
More than half of the photos I took were out of focus, and I promptly deleted them. In the end, I was left with a half dozen of “decent” photos, like the photo of the Sandhill Cranes and the photo of the photographers.
Japaneese Photographers “Chimping” Their Photos click on image for gallery
Should I be happy that I got a few “almost good” photos, in spite of all my problems or should be complaining about … coulda, shoulda, woulda …
What kind of photographer are you?
If I don't control myself, I'm a coulda, shoulda… But I'm working hard to turn it around.