Jeremiah Tolbert

It’s hard to over­es­ti­mate the use­ful­ness of luck when it comes to wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy. A lot of my best shots owe their exis­tence to chance. Being in the right place at the right time, that’s luck. So it hap­pened this week­end that I found myself unex­pect­edly tak­ing a photo when I thought I was done.

I’d gone for a walk down a short trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the fog was thick enough that I wasn’t see­ing much of any­thing beyond a few deer and some squir­rels. (This is what it looked like) I turned around and headed back to my car. As I sat my cam­era on the roof of the car so that I could get out my bag and put it away, I looked across the car at the tree on the other side and saw this red-​​naped sap­sucker sit­ting there, not even pay­ing atten­tion to me. At a dis­tance of about 4 feet, It’s hard not to get a rea­son­able shot.

I might not have even noticed the bird. It blended in with the bark fairly well except for that red head and throat, and I must have caught that color out of the cor­ner of my eye.

Sometimes, the best shots come not because you’ve pre­pared, or because you wanted it. Sometimes, you just get lucky. The trick is, hav­ing enough skill to make your luck work for you.

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