Sometimes accidents are good. I certainly didn’t expect this male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) to move when I pressed my camera’s shutter release, but I managed to catch the bird in a much more interesting pose than the one I was originally trying to capture.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Ah Mike you were there and ready. Wow, what a great shot! Love the spread of the wings and the flash of colour! Well done!
Thanks, Chris. It’s a really fun shot. I usually keep my camera set to burst mode and even though I sometimes “waste” frames, it certainly pays off in cases like this when I kept my finger on the shutter button. (I can’t tell you how many mini-sequences I have that end with my subject cut off or entirely out of the frame).
That’s the beauty of digital cameras! You just get trigger happy with the delete button afterwards🌞
Indeed, although the buffer of the camera fills up and the frame rate slows down after a certain number of frames, so I can’t go totally crazy and have to try to time it to capture the peak action (or get lucky).
Great capture.
Thanks, Victor.
Fantastic serendipity but you still had to be there, observing, prepared and with your camera already set up just right.
You caught me, Laura. I deliberately set up a false dichotomy to be provocative. As you rightly point out, lucky by itself is not enough–you have to have enough skill to be able to take advantage of the luck to get a photo. 🙂
Nice catch of a smart bird that doesn’t seem to like a lens pointed its way. They remind me of crows in that respect.
Being prepared, and of course skilled, certainly doesn’t hurt as part of your recipe for success.
What a wonderful accident! Great outcome! Love to see those little feet in the take-off. These birds are next to impossible for me to capture in flight, and I’m constantly aiming my camera at them when they’re sitting pretty – but I miss the shot every time they take off.
Luck plays such a big role when photographing wild creatures. As I recall, I really was trying to photograph the blackbird at rest and was not waiting for it to fly to catch it in motion. I have spent large amounts of time waiting for hawks to take off and almost always miss the moment.
There’s so much to be said for the burst mode! When I’m stalking any wild critters–spiders, insects, birds, etc.–I’m nearly always ready for rapid-fire, and it often pays. This is a wonderful example!
BTW, I’d say not luck vs. skill, but rather luck plus skill!
I totally agree, Gary. I like to be a little subversive sometimes and pose questions as black and white instead of dealing with the shades of gray that more appropriately reflect reality.
And I completely agree with both of you!