Bring your camera ding dong

I am a slow learner, it takes dozens of mistakes before I clue in and make the changes necessary. I go up to our ranch regularly to feed cows, check cows, meet the tree trimmers, escape for a day of solitude (shhhh, don't tell anyone), whathaveyou.. I never know what I might come across up at the ranch. I have learned over the years that if I don't bring my camera, I will most certainly come across something amazing or exciting. Because of my failure to bring my good camera, I have taken lots of really bad photos over the years with my iPhone or my old beater camera. Occasionally I have had the wherewithal to bring my camera only to discover a key component like a battery or memory card is at home on my desk.



I have bumped into pigs, cats big and small, deer and even a bear. I have never been very lucky with my camera and photographing the wildlife I come across. I have really bad blurry photos of all sorts things.



Never have I been so disappointed as last spring when I was working up at the ranch. I was closing up the gate to the hay barn and out of the corner of my eye I see a bird fly. So I look up and the bird has landed on the telephone pole about 30 feet up and just a few feet from me. As I focus my aging eyes I realize, holy crap, it's a bald eagle. Not only is it a bald eagle, which are a spectacle to see in these parts, it is holding what appears to be a 2-3lb large mouth bass in its talons. I grab the only camera I had, which was my iPhone 3G and snap a couple photos and the eagle flies off. When I got home I uploaded my pictures and did everything I could to salvage the missed opportunity. It was a definitely lost moment because I captured a blur of a bird holding something. If only I had my good camera with the zoom lens locked and loaded I could have captured this never to be repeated opportunity I had.



 I will keep trying, although wildlife photography is definitely not my forte, I can only improve! If I can remember to take my camera, make sure the batteries are charged and the memory card is loaded and be ready to shoot, I will have a better chance of improving. What amazing photo opportunities have you blown?