I have an amazing partner who is also my wife. Too often though, we are separated as I go off on this project and that event. We’ve been together a long time so I know the majority of her favorites and one of them is the Pileated Woodpecker. Goes way back in time when we watched them in Yosemite Valley in the ’80s. Well on my last adventure in FL last week, I was in a couple of locales where there were Pileateds. I wanted a photo to sent to Sharon just so you knew I was thinking of her. I saw one fly by here and another there, but never saw any opportunity to make a click. Then the last day in the last hour I received a text from Jake. He had two Pileateds in his viewfinder. So I grabbed the D5 / 800mm and booked it back down the boardwalk. Jake is really good at learning and applying all the lessons over the years shooting wildlife. The most important, go slow and look 360 for the great light and then the subject in that light. Doing that he found two which was just one when I reached him. Another important lesson we practice everyday is knowing our camera gear intimately for just such as an occasion as this. I saw the small avenue through the trees I could shoot as I walked up. By the time the tripod was on the boardwalk, the camera exposure compensation had already been set, aperture selected and focus approximately set for the distance. So once on the boardwalk all I had to do was get the glass on the Pileated and shoot. No, it’s not a great shot but that’s not what I was after. The point of this shot was to share a memory and moment with my best friend. But isn’t that what photography is really, truly all about>
