Murphy's Law For Bird (or general nature) Photographers.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Just something light-hearted that I thought we could have fun with. Let's have fun posting things that can and will go wrong while out photographing birds and other fauna / flaura. It can be gear related, subject related, processing related...whatever! Let's just have a good laugh I'll start with three:

1. The best and sharpest portrait with the best head angle, background, composition, and techs is also the one that has the nictitating membrane closed. (This happened to me again this morning and is the reason that got me thinking of this thread)

2. Out of a series of flight shots the one that is sharpest with the best wing position is also the one that you clipped the wingtips out of the frame.

3. If you leave a group of bird photographers because the place is dead...they will soon e-mail you full-frame pictures of the cooperative rare bird that showed up as you were leaving the parking lot.

Feel free to add to the list!

[Stu Bowie]

You stand for ages with your eye in the viewfinder waiting for ( in my case ) a kingfisher to take off, when you lift your finger off the shutter button to scratch your head, and ... it takes off.

[Paul Whitbread]

2. Out of a series of flight shots the one that is sharpest with the best wing position is also the one that you clipped the wingtips out of the frame.!

If only! I usually find the sharpest one is the photo in which at least half the bird is out of frame.

[Randy Stout]

OK:

You get up at 4:00 AM to get to your favorite bird spot before dawn, can hear the loons calling, launch the boat, get half way out into the lake, get ready to set your gear up, and realize that you lift the wimberley at the cottage 2 hours away!

(Hand holding a 600 in a boat isn't easy )

Cheers

Randy

[Markus Jais]

2 sounds very familiar :-)

I had situations where it took me quite a while to very slowly approach a shy animal and when I was almost close enough for a great shot, suddenly someone approaches me and asks what I am doing. Sometimes they ask me stuff like "are your trying to photography xyz"? with xyz being the animal they just scared away.

Markus

[Rachel Hollander]

I had one recently on my trip to Svalbard. We had spent a good amount of time shooting the arctic foxes in the rocks and some nearby reindeer when one of the arctic foxes decided to trot down and approach us before veering off to investigate some other rocks for food. It was of course at that exact moment and after 2 or 3 shots of its approach that my CF card was full. So another number to keep an eye on, how many more images will fit on the card.

Rachel

[shane shacaluga]

hahaha 1 and 2 have happened to me on a number of occasions!

One that has happened to me a few times is to stealthily approach a subject, move into position where the light is behind you and the subject is in the clear, you raise the camera, check settings, focus and at that moment a cloud pops over the sun, subject laughs at you and flies off!!!

[Doug West]

Shooting a sunset, increasing the white balance/temperature so its more hot to get a more
dramatic sky, then forgetting to set it back for normal shooting. Done that once.

Doug

[Ian Cassell]

And, Doug, the next morning ... the incredible shot shows up, the image is acquired, and THEN you realize you forgot to reset the ISO/temp/etc. the night before.

[Raybel Robles]

That moment when you have been waiting for nearly an hour for this bird to show up and the moment you look down to check the time or check the phone it flies by!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great examples guys...keep them coming!

[Grace Scalzo]

You are watching a preening bird, waiting and waiting for a wing stretch or a nice fluff. Then all he does is a teeny tiny little shake with a bad angle and that's the end.

Or when you have spent days trying to photograph a short eared owl on a nice perch and the only place he wants to land is on a street sign.

[Larry Handal]

Bald Eagle lands with a cattle egret gasping for life in its claws 10 feet away in front of you oblivious of your presence and you have your 800mm
mounted on your camera! True story.

[Don Railton]

You watch a rainbow bee eater return to the same branch time after time with a bee in its beak. So you carefully set your tripod up to focus on that branch to catch the 'wings spread' landing shot, making allowance for wind direction and leaving room for spread wings. The birds flies and returns to the next branch over. You resist the urge to reset your tripod to the next branch, knowing its set up correctly for the original branch. The bird flies and returns again to the wrong branch, then and does it again and again. So you decide to move the tripod, but guess where the next flight returns to...DOH..!

DON

[BobbyPerkins]

You drink entirely too much coffee, just before you put on waders, see where this is going?
Or your behind the lens afield, sipping your coffee, have to take a "quick break", and while your taking that "quick break", a pair of Sandhill Cranes do a close flyby, or an osprey or eagle with a massive fish in it's talons flys over your head. Maybe a kingfisher hovers above you. Who's been there?
Don't drink too much coffee!
This is probably going to be a great thread Daniel.
Or, you spend all morning belly crawling up on shorebirds in the mud & muck, and all though it's not hunting season a hunter shows up and let's his dog run. Where does dog go? Straight to the crazy man laying out in the mud. Session is now over!

[BobbyPerkins]

Oh, this just happened. I got to pay more attention to this.
You wake up at 4 am, head out to spend the perfect morning out photographing waterfowl and wading birds at your favorite wetland pond. When you get there (4:30 - 5am), well before sunrise theres trucks & trailors lined up incircling the whole area. I quickly realize it's not wabbit season, it's the opener of Duck season!

[Jerry van Dijk]

You go out to a nature reserve at half an hour drive from home to shoot a rare butterfly species in the golden hour, only to find on your arrival that you forgot to put your neatly packed photo bag in the back of your car. True story .

[Doug West]

Spend a good part of your day on your stomach, in sand and water, slowly getting closer to those birds you've been dying to photograph when somebody walks right
up, scares them, looks at you and asks 'I wonder what scared them?', then walks away, leaving me wanting to bury my head in the sand.

Doug

[Nancy Bell]

To extend the drinking coffee experience...you are waiting and waiting for the bird to appear on the nest tree and you decide you do not want to miss a moment so you do not leave your tripod as you deal with the coffee overload. The bird flies in at that precise moment and you are elated you did not leave your tripod as you got the shot! But then you look around and find you have an audience of two laughing their heads off!

[Carl Walker]

Glad I'm not the only one to leave some of my gear behind. Got up early to visit an inland lake covered in flamingos, pelicans and avocets etc. The day has turned really bad and in trying to make sense of going anyway I grab my gear and leave. I get there and realise that I left my long lens on the table at home. It turned out to be an amazing experience but shot with a 70 - 200mm. Haha

I have a 3yr old Rhodesian Ridgeback male who travels with me everywhere on the reserve in an open landrover . He is an amazingly patient dog and has learned to put up with my photography sessions which can often last a few hours motionless in the back of the vehicle on my off days. Here is the thing though. If a bee or similar buzzes around us he jumps up trying to get at it. Yes it normally when I'm about to take a shot or he scares the subject off. So, probably 10% of my OOF shots are his doing.

On hot summer days he battles a bit with the heat. His constant panting is like keeping the vehicle running whilst trying to shoot. (yes I keep water in the landy for him)

The best is when we walk in the bush together. Occasionally I give him a bit of space to run around and get some exercise but it can be seriously crazy at times. I like carrying my 70-200 with me when we do this and sometimes I try and capture shots of him and his interaction with other wildlife. He is still puppyish and he has this gangly little pouncing act that he does to chase animals. Mostly he gets the reaction he wants. However Zebra and Wildebeest initially run away but come back chasing him. The problem is he runs back to me with these guys at full tilt behind him. There have been a few close calls and I concentrate so hard on getting the shot that I lose track of approaching animals until they are nearly on top of me.

Besides all this he is fun to have as a companion and I really don't mind the missed shots or close calls.

[shane shacaluga]

I had a two for one yesterday

Was doing some long exposure shots the night before last, so when I got to the beach yesterday evening for some gannet shots, i remembered this post and ensured I had changed the SS and aperture and set the camera to the basic exposure settings for the light.

First gannet comes along quite close so lined it up and....... WTF??!! The camera was not taking any pictures. Pressed the shutter release a number of times and nothing?? As i fumbled with the settings to figure out what was wrong i heard it fire!! I then realised i had forgotten to move it back to continuous shooting mode from the countdown timer setting i used when on the tripod!


Sorted that problem out and spent the next hour of super light waiting for another gannet to come close enough with no luck. The sun set behind the mountain and i progressed up the ISO and decided to call it quits when I got to about ISO 4000

Dissapointed about the lack of gannets close to shore, I turned the camera off, put it in the bag and as I was walking back up the beach, a beautiful adult gannet comes out of nowhere and dive-bombs a couple of meters from where I was standing!!

Not impressed!!

[David Kenny]

I live in nj, so even if you think you are in a great location nice and early there is always "that guy" that appears out of no where talking way too loud on his Bluetooth. It's amazing.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

1) You're tracking a bird in flight. The right position/banking pose happens exactly when there's a distracting element in the fg/bg. If it's not a man-made distraction, it'll be a coot, or three, for good measure :)

2) You've made a nice setup and are waiting patiently. Strong wind messes up your perches (or the RWBBs come ravage your setup).
You step out of your hide just as your target species approaches and you've scared it away for good.
(Murphy's law obviously doesn't apply to those who share the last name. e.g. Alan Murphy )

[Bill Dix]

Sad enough when one of these things happens to you. You know what's REALLY sad? Virtually ALL of them have happened to me.

But there's a corollary to the coffee-drinking episode. I recently stepped into the woods for a 'natural break', and got that feeling that I was being watched. Looking up I saw a beautiful young frame-filling Red-tailed Hawk catching the early morning sun. And he stayed long enough for me to retrieve my tripod and capture a few frames.

[Diane Miller]

Goof laughs, and I've had enough of them happen that I can't think of anything to add, except a Murphy's Corollary: If enough of these things happen to you, eventually you'll get a shot!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Bill, your "natural break" story reminds me of another. First off I'll start by saying I have zero images of Black-throated Blue Warbler in my collection. Now, I'm at my folks cottage a few years ago and need such a break. I go deeper in the woods, start to do what it is to do, and in comes a full breeding plumaged male Black-throated Blue Warbler almost instantaneously, perched 6 feet away at eye level on a perfect perch with a clear background just watching me. It stayed there the whole time, with my gear on the forest floor. I have time to finish, pick up my gear, point it at the bird, focus, compose...and just guess what happens when I am about to depress the shutter button!!! Away it goes never to be found again

I can relate to many of your stories guys!! Lots of fun!

[David Salem]

Your by yourself at a nature preserve at 7am on a Sunday morning standing out side of your car scanning for raptors and waterfowl to fly by. Not a sole in sight. Suddenly you hear a loud rush of air and a loud "whack".
You look up to see a beautiful adult female Peregrine with a struggling Cinnamon Teal in her feet and she lands 100 ft from you. You cant believe it. You quickly realize that your on the wrong side of the sun.
You take the chance and jump into the car and spin the car around but the only way is to drive by her only 25' to her side. Go for it. She is looking hard at you and you put your head down as not to make any eye contact as you drive right next to her.
You cant believe she didnt bolt. At about 70ft you swing the car sideways with the sun at your back. As fast as the car stops you are getting her in frame and focus. As you are about to hit the shutter, you hear voices.
You look over to see whats going on and as soon as you look back, she lets go of the still live Teal and bolts, as three guys ride up on their bikes. "Did you see that Falcon" they say to YOU. Totally True.

[adrian dancy]

Not so much a Murphy's Law anecdote but one that cracks me up because it has happened twice...I'm photographing a heron at my local park. A guy comes up to me. I didn't see him approach but you know that feeling when you are being watched. You know you are going to be approached within 10 seconds in which time you know the bird is going to snap at a fish. The 10 seconds pass and yes I am approached and hear "what are you doing?"...."I'm photographing that heron" I reply...which heron?" (there's only one)... "the one right in front of me" I say..."Oh that heron...is it extinct?".

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Not so much a Murphy's Law anecdote but one that cracks me up because it has happened twice...I'm photographing a heron at my local park. A guy comes up to me. I didn't see him approach but you know that feeling when you are being watched. You know you are going to be approached within 10 seconds in which time you know the bird is going to snap at a fish. The 10 seconds pass and yes I am approached and hear "what are you doing?"...."I'm photographing that heron" I reply...which heron?" (there's only one)... "the one right in front of me" I say..."Oh that heron...is it extinct?".

Haha, that is way too funny Adrian. I can't stop laughing