Pictures I Didn't Seek Initially...

All my life, I have been a perfectionist at my creative endeavors.  This has translated into my photography pursuits as well.

For instance, I may decide early in the morning that it's a great day to photograph flowers.  I'll gather my equipment, load up the truck and head to a predetermined spot to click happily away.  Some times, the results come out really nice and I'm happy with the time spent away from home.

However, other times the photos don't turn out like I remembered when I get them on the computer screen.  This is particularly true of nature photographs.  Ever have one of those days?

It's on these days I find that the unplanned pictures often turn out to be the best pictures.  The following photos are a case in point.

This guy sat on the pole singing the entire time I was photographing reflections in a pond.  Trudging back to the truck lugging my equipment, this woodpecker kept turning his head nearly upside down looking at me.  I imagine he thought the two-legged creature with the three-legged thingy and black box on it's shoulder was rather funny looking.  I say funny because his singing sounded more like laughter the closer I got to the truck.  So I stopped and got his mugshot.  :)

After downloading the pictures to my laptop, the reflections appeared uninspired looking.  The woodpecker turned out to be the best of the trip.

 

On the day I took this picture, my intention was to photograph incoming storm clouds.  It was also the first time using my 55-200mm lens.  The clouds did not turn out as well as I hoped but I did manage to get my first major in-flight picture.




So what has photography taught me that nothing else could?  I've learned it's great to have a plan and yes, definitely essential.  But I shouldn't be so focused on a picture/goal that I miss the smaller, sometimes more interesting things going on all around me.  In fact, I should at times drop the perfectionism and just have fun.  I know, it's only taken 44 years to come to that epiphany.