Sometimes you just have to be there…

Be there that very moment “it” happens.

Ruth and I were on our way back to our Bluegrass from Columbus OH, and stopped riverside across from  Maysville KY.  We pulled over on the northern banks of the Ohio River to have a dinner we’d packed earlier.

Of course, we started shooting!  There were wonderful shots to the west as the sun started dipping… shots of the city with the trains going along the banks on the KY side, shots of the sun setting over the river, shots…

OH WOW…LOOK!!!

The sun had just dipped to that perfect angle and for only a very few scant minutes, casting that amazing red-orange hue on everything it touched.   We could not shoot, re-frame, focus, and shoot again nearly fast enough.   This wasn’t your tripod, consider, work it kind of event, this had to grabbed while that fleeting moment was just right…. when “it” happened.

Much about photographing the natural world is about being experienced, educated and prepared.   You must know your camera, know how to focus-frame-expose-shoot in a split second to catch the fleeting moment of light, the fast moving deer, the perfect sway of the trees.   You must have your camera settings right for what you might encounter.

And sometimes, just sometimes, “it” happens.