10/29/2026
To state the obvious, wildlife photography is one of the most unpredictable disciplines in the art of photography—and perhaps the one in which luck plays the greatest role.
When I photograph a person, I can carefully control the lighting, composition, pose, and environment to bring a particular vision to life. The same is true of product photography and many other photographic disciplines. I can envision an image and then deliberately set about creating it.
Wildlife, however, doesn’t work that way.
Animals don’t take direction, they don’t repeat a behavior on command, and they certainly don’t care whether you’re standing in the right place with your camera ready. You can spend hours anticipating a moment that never happens—or stumble upon something extraordinary when you least expect it.
In this particular instance, I could have been anywhere within this 30-acre wetland. But as luck would have it, I happened upon this beautiful great egret at precisely the moment she pulled a frog from the water.
A few seconds earlier, a few seconds later, or a hundred feet in another direction, and I would have missed the encounter entirely.
And that, to me, is what makes wildlife photography so compelling. You can develop your skills, study animal behavior, invest in extraordinary equipment, and spend countless hours in the field—but you can never eliminate the element of chance.
Luck puts you in the right place at the right time. Experience determines what you do once you’re there.
And when those two things come together, you have the opportunity to capture something truly special.
