I’m often asked how I manage to capture images of Kingfishers. Most often, I respond by saying that I understand their behaviour and likely habitat and therefore I can anticipate likely sightings. Sightings are always, or nearly always preceded by an aural observation.
Then, Golf comes into play, inasmuch as the famous statement attributed to Gary Player – “The more I practice, the luckier I get”.
That got me thinking about last week so whilst I waited for my appointment at the dentist this morning (I’m always on time if not early and he is always late), I did some sums on a scrap of paper having noted down some statistics from Lightroom before I left home.
This is what I discovered:
- 33 hours were spent on a boat patrolling the River Bure
- 175 digital negatives were made
- Kingfishers presented themselves for photo-opportunities for 15 minutes 8 seconds
- 8 images were selected for printing
- 0.76% of my time in the boat yielded the chance to make images – that is the luck factor.
Gary Player got it right in my opinion. One thing for sure though is that there were fewer pairs about this year and I have been going to this location for many years now.
A few years ago, the number of images I would have attempted would have been far greater and although I only selected 8 to print, there are many more worthy of printing but for what purpose? Mrs O reckons the haul from this year is my best in terms of quality.
