For me, lightning struck while photographing an image I titled “Territorial Dispute”. When my wife Kelly and I have shared days off, our favorite thing to do together (2nd technically!) is to travel to some of our area’s Nature Reserves. On this particular November morning we left the house early enough to arrive at Merritt Island Wildlife Drive before sunrise, about 2 hours away from our home in Lakeland , Florida.
It wasn’t a particularly memorable morning, simply photographing some of the usual wildlife residents of MIWD. We were there for a few hours exploring when we decided to head back home. On the road out of the park we came upon a pretty small pond with a hundred or so Snowy Egrets diving for fish and fighting for the ponds best branches. Kelly stayed in the car as I popped the back hatch of the car and reached for my Canon 1DX MKII and Canon 500mm f/4 IS II. I also brought along a 300mm F/2.8 and swapped out lenses several times based on the action I wanted to capture.
I was in Heaven! A beautiful cool morning, Snowy Egrets in abundance, bird diving action and my wife by my side! Oh wait…my wife! Did I forget about her sitting in the car for a couple of hours! Maybe…but HEY, there were BIRDS! Beautiful Snowy’s! Let me check on her! “Honey, are you ok?” Kelly: “Andy, you ‘ve been here shooting the same birds for a couple of hours, are you sure you need to take more?”
Hmmm, she does bring up a good point…however I didn’t have that Lightning strike moment to the best of my knowledge. I said…just a little bit longer.
At the time I had on my 500mm and popped on the 300mm for some final shots as there was some isolation happening between 2 Snowy’s on the far part of the pond. They were getting aggressive with each other and the best part is there weren’t any birds behind them causing any distractions.
“This scene had potential. I shot for about 10 more minutes and my favorite images came from this scene. 2 Snowy Egrets battling for a branch position and Territorial Dispute was born!”
Andy Glogower
I got back in the car and told my wife, I think I just took one of my all time favorite photographs! She drove and I checked some of the pics on the camera and it looked promising. Sometimes you just can’t tell if you truly got the shot till it’s downloaded and can view it on the big screen.
Downloaded the card and Boom! In focus! Hooray! Also…whew! I didn’t screw that up, lol. Happens. Doesn’t it?
I entered the photograph into PPA’s IPC where it received Image Excellence …AND was chosen to represent USA in the World Photographic Competition being held in Singapore in 2023. One of my Daughter’s, Meghan and her husband traveled to Singapore with Kelly and I and received a Bronze Medal for Team USA and also help take the Bronze Medal for USA among 34 competing Countries!
What a thrill! Kelly is even more patient with me these days!
It’s funny to think about it this way however a couple of little white birds just living their best life would be responsible for sending us halfway around the world to Singapore!
Meta data was ISO 500, 1/1250 at f/4.5 at 420mm using the 1.4Ext
The Canon 1DX MKii that I was shooting with was an evaluation camera I received from Canon Professional Services. After shooting with that body, I fell in love with it. My current body was the Canon 5D MK IV. After returning the Camera to Canon, I went online to purchase one and it just so happened Canon just announced pre-orders for the 1DX MKiii. I ordered that right away. I’m now shooting with the R3 and am just blow away by how stellar these camera’s are these days!
