Patience. Yes, photographers must possess many skills, but to me patience is one of a photographer’s most important skills. This is especially true for wildlife photographers. All this week I have been posting pictures of creepy crawly, slithering or flying critters, and in every case I had to have patience in order to get the shot I wanted. You can’t just run up to a snake on the ground or a moth on a tree and snap a shot. They will be gone before you even get close. You have to be stealthy, quiet and above all else, patient!
This photo was taken at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge outside of Titusville, Florida, an amazing location for lovers of wildlife photography. Its 140,000 acres provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife including: 330 species of birds, 117 fishes, 65 amphibians and reptiles, and 31 mammals. In addition, 15 species federally listed as threatened or endangered use the refuge. We walked though some sections of the refuge and drove through others and observed alligators and many species of birds that day that I had never seen before. It’s a beautiful place to visit and test your patience skills! I snapped this shot with the camera I had previous to my Canon Rebel, and it turned out amazingly well, but I would love to go back there with my DSLR and spend some more time capturing the amazing residents of this refuge, especially since my kids are older now and wouldn’t spend the whole time asking if it was time to leave yet! They, of course, didn’t have any patience at 9 and 12 years old. 🙂
photos from the loonybin 
Another good shot, Cindy–and I love your title!
Thanks! I try to put some thought into the title as well because sometimes that’s what draws people in.
Cindy, I tried to send you an e-mail message (at loonybin@synmpatico.ca) in response to your spider post, but it’s come back as undeliverable after several days of trying. I thought you’d like to know. Is there a problem with this address? I have some spider information I think you’d like.
You almost had it right. It’s loonybin@sympatico.ca. You just had an extra “n” in sympatico. I tell you something funny that has been happening with my WordPress account though. Usually I get emails for likes and for comments. Yesterday and today I have only been getting the emails for the likes. Have you experienced this at all?
Love the photo…and I never try to run after a snake, it is usually the other way around 🙂
Thanks TBM!! You just gave me my giggle for the day, imagining you running from an itty bitty snake (even though I don’t know what you look like LOL). Now that I think of it though, with the places you have travelled to, you may in fact have had to run from some big-assed snakes, so I shouldn’t laugh at you! 🙂
I have run from a few snakes in my life…they scare me! But most of the time I was in Colorado (lived there for many years). I would see them on my hikes and sometimes in my house. Oh I’m getting the willies! And I’m not the most coordinated person, so if you saw me run from one, you would probably be laughing. Graceful I am not.
Hey, you’re going to get me fired if you keep making me laugh out loud at work!! LOL
Patience is key 😀
I agree! 🙂