ThirstyFish

Waiting for mom to feed them, one of these baby Tree Swallow siblings became vocal, showing its bright orange beak: "Pick me! Pick me!"

This photo is more of a reminder of a lesson learned than one of success. Initially there were four baby tree swallows lined up on the branch. Since the light was low and I wanted some depth of field to have all four babies in focus, I removed my teleconverter and kept my distance. As the mom flew in to feed the youngsters one at a time, it did not occur to me to approach them to focus on the feeding. The feeding would have made the better photo! Where did my anticipation go? Once you miss it, it is gone forever!

There is no single formula that works for everything - not in photography, not in life. When we experience things we are unaccustomed to, our minds initially gather hints which we relate to our past experiences and to formulas we are familiar with. We make spontaneous inferences. Our set of premises determine how well we confront our new experiences.

It is not surprising that we suppress our intuitions. Intuition and improvisation are discouraged by means of rules and social norms. There are no incentives for intuition or improvisation. We are expected to behave in specific ways, do our jobs exactly as described and avoid using discretion. Those who break the mold, those who use intuition, often face ridicule even when they are right! [Scroll down to Ludwig Boltzmann on the page]. We owe a significant amount of our progress to those who dared to be intuitive. Even when we are in the right place at the right time, without anticipation and intuition we rarely seize the moment, or, make meaningful photographs...