Serendipity in wildlife photography

Sometimes the only way to capture a certain image is just to be there and ready. Check this out: <LINK>

Great capture. Almost a metaphor for life. No matter how hard you work or how much you plan of bit of luck never hurts.

Yeah but look at how many frames he shot!.......

;) ;)

The well known secret to winning the Pulitzer Prize for news photography is "f/8 and be there." This is a great example of that.

The whole thing seems such a rarity that every participant played a part in something so unique.

I expect the scene is quite rare in itself even without the photographer getting the great shot.

Aw Heck, my own serendipity (and careful patience, I might add)

 

Where is the shark and fish?

my own serendipity (and careful patience

"Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation" (Zig Ziglar)

Serendipity (and the patience to wait for it) is the winter storm that comes along once in a few years. Preparation is the hoarding of vacation days so they're available when the opportunity presents, and in developing the tools and skills to apply in that moment of opportunity, hence:

and sometimes you just get lucky. these mating flickers were chasing eachother through the trees. i just happened so see them coming. i put up my 300 mm lens n couldnt find them as i focused in n out. all of a sudden, they flew right into my field of view just as i hit tge trigger.

 

 

Can't be THAT rare....(note that this is a National Geographic picture, not mine)

Serendipity (and the patience to wait for it) is the winter storm that comes along once in a few years.

Hmmm.

 

I think the winter storm that comes along once in a few years is unusual.

 

I think happening to dream about a winter storm the night before when one hasn't occurred for years is serendipity.

I think happening to dream about a winter storm the night before when one hasn't occurred for years is serendipity.

Fred, my point is two-fold. First, in Zion Canyon, winter storms are not absolutely unusual. (The canyon itself is testament to that.) However, following an experience there more than ten years ago, I've been trying to find a set of circumstances that would allow me participate in a winter storm in spite of my day job and other obligations. The synergy of my own preparations combined with the serendipity of the storms timing resulted in a very memorable, even extraordinary experience. Second: We must wait, search for, even be patient for that serendipitous opportunity, but it is preparation that makes full benefit therefrom possible.

I think sometimes serendipity just happens, regardless of what I do or how I am. I’m all for being prepared to take advantage of various situations and being prepared can make one a good observer as well. But I don’t think in terms of preparing for serendipity. As a matter of fact that seems counterintuitive to me. I think more in terms of appreciating and even seizing those kinds of fortuitous moments, but not so much preparing for them. For me, it’s being open to them but not so much about preparation. That’s just me. To each his own on these things.

Some call the preparation for it "mindfulness".

“He had the presence of mind to act”.......Mindfulness is an excellent term for it.

Conscious conditioning to react.

Some call the preparation for it "mindfulness".

Isn’t mindfulness a focused attention on the present/current moment and experience? This includes an awareness of one's physical as well as emotional states, in this moment. I actually think preparation for serendipity would be a distraction to mindfulness. Thinking one can somehow prepare for serendipity would be a projection into the future, not an attentiveness to the present, IMO.

 

I'm in favor of preparation and having a prepared mind. That has served my life and my photography quite well. It hasn't affected my experiencing serendipity. The thing I love about serendipity is that it happens when I’m LEAST prepared. It shocks my system. Serendipidity feels to me like it comes from without, not within. It’s the universe aligning in a certain way, regardless of me, not because of me.

For wildlife, it's f/8 and be there, but be there over and over and over and over. Do that several days a week, for ten-years and then something like this'll happen:

 

Reprocessed Blackbird On Owl Shot (Explored) by David Stephens, on Flickr

 

f/4 in this case, due to low light.

 

Knowing where to be, to increase your odds, makes a huge difference. It took me over 100-hours to get a decent ring-necked pheasant in flight. I saw them every outing, so I was in the right place, but getting them on the right side of the light, etc., etc. takes effort. It took me years to get my first coyote leaping shot, then I got this:

 

Dive! by David Stephens, on Flickr

 

Now, I've got dozens of great coyote leaping shots.

 

Serendipity does have a role, but increasing your odds by being in the right places and knowing what to do when it finally happens are huge contributors.

20-frames per second doesn't hurt either.

I mostly agree with what David is saying, as I hear him saying that there are many things more important than serendipity in photography and in nature photography specifically.

 

Here’s a straightforward definition of “serendipity” from Merriam-Webster: “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”

 

Those who’ve talked about nature photography have mostly talked about doing things over and over again and being out there in search and hopes of these kinds of special moments (special and rare moments aren’t necessarily serendipitous, it’s important to note). Serendipity is about NOT seeking certain types of events but rather the world fortuitously aligning to create beneficial events that were NOT being sought.

 

The thing about mindfulness is that it can be very helpful in all kinds of noticing. Mindfulness and serendipity don’t have any kind of unique relationship but rather the same relationship that being aware of any event or situation has. Mindfulness will make me be more aware of others’ feelings, more in tune with my own emotions, perhaps more understanding of my mate’s anger, more present at the birth of my child or the death of my parent and more concentrated on the music I’m listening to. And, sure, it may help me notice serendipitous events. But, in that sense, it’s about the noticing, not about the serendipity per se. As a matter of fact, unlike some more subtle things that mindfulness can help us be in tune with, it’s kind of hard to miss serendipity, at least for me, since it’s usually such a blatant and shocking surprise.

Thank you Fred. Well said.

 

If you take lots of shots of wildlife (I take thousands per week) you'll often be surprised by what's in you shot that you didn't see as you took the shot. For instance, I took a shot of a Cooper's hawk flying over recently and only when I got home did I realize that it had a bird in its talons. Like the shark in the talons of the osprey, at the head of the thread, that's not serendipity, it just what osprey eat. I've got osprey with shad, flounders, bass and trout. When I shoot at New Smyrna Beach next week, I wouldn't be real surprised if I didn't get one with a small shark. After all, on the ocean, they'll tend to fish right along the shoreline, where small sharks are quite common.

 

True serendipity would be me taking a landscape shot of the Golden Gate Bridge and a whale breaching in the middle of the picture. There could be a situation where I sought the whale breach, but, most likely, when I shoot the Golden Gate, that's not even in my mind.

Like the shark in the talons of the osprey, at the head of the thread, that's not serendipity, it just what osprey eat. I've got osprey with shad, flounders, bass and trout.

You left out what the shark had in its mouth.....

You list doubles.

The OP is a triple.....

I think the triple whammy aspect makes it rare and more special but not serendipitous. Serendipity generally has an element of surprising connectedness, something that seems like an aha moment. If the photographer who took this special and rare shot had had a girlfriend way back in college who he hadn’t seen for decades and she turned out to be a nature photographer as well and they ran into each other by chance on this nature photo shoot and rekindled their love affair, that would be serendipity. Serendipity is not just a happy accident, it’s not just a rare photo, it’s not just any chance meeting. The randomness or chance has some underlying connection which makes it serendipitous.

 

This is not to take anything away from the specialness of this capture. It’s just that it’s not serendipitous, IMO.

 

I just read about a group of London researchers looking into serendipity. A nice example they provide for serendipity going beyond just special occasion, incredible luck, or happy accident is an architecture student watching a BBC documentary on honey bees and getting the idea of using the hexagonal shape of honeycomb to create a novel building design. Here’s where the importance of connection in serendipity is exemplified. The accident and luck is that he’s watching the BBC documentary. He’s in the right place at the right time. The serendipity is in the connection he makes between what he’s watching, by chance, and something seemingly unrelated, a building design. It’s when a significant, meaningful, and beneficial connection is made through otherwise random events.

1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: "a fortunate stroke of serendipity" synonyms: (happy) chance, (happy) accident, fluke, luck, good luck, good fortune, fortuity, providence, happy coincidence.

 

I'll take the Oxford dictionary as the more reliable source......Simple, accurate, and concise. No need to try to make words mean something they don't.

The word describes the photo as presented by the original post, perfectly.

Fred seems to be talking more about synchronicity, which often involves serendipity.

That’s possible. In either case, I’m talking about something more than a nature photographer, out to shoot . . . nature, coming across a rare and special but eminently natural scene of a food chain event, something not happening by chance but of very well understood natural necessity. I characterize it as special, rare, and lucky, but not terribly accidental, coincidental, or providential.

That’s possible. In either case, I’m talking about something more than a nature photographer, out to shoot . . . nature, coming across a rare and special but eminently natural scene of a food chain event, something not happening by chance but of very well understood natural necessity. I characterize it as special, rare, and lucky, but not terribly accidental, coincidental, or providential.

 

Fred, I read your previous comments with great interest, and I like the concept of serendipity to involve the aspect of unexpected connection, where none existed to begin with. This IMO appeals a lot to human consciousness to realize connections among seemingly disconnected events in the universe, rather than merely registering such events as unexpected or lucky. After all, everything in the universe works based on the same basic set of principles derived from physics, geometry, rules of association and disorder, and the causalities ensuing from them. The honeycomb structure that works for the bees could as well work for us for dwelling, since we and the bees share the same basic necessities of biological survival and protection. That we don't live in a parallel world of street lights and concrete, isolated from the natural world of greenery and soil, is the unexpected connection that the student discovered.

 

I have faced unexpected connections in my life. This reminds me of an incident when I was driving over a bridge and the bridge started shaking with all it's trusses and joints, but since it was designed to be stable, the vibrations were distributed among the various mechanical parts without any single part receiving high stress. This reminded me of proteins (since thats my field of expertise) and how nature has evolved them to be stable with all the intramolecular connections distributing thermal stress evenly. Those principles that allow me to safely drive over the bridge also ensure that I (and the entire biological world) am made possible.

 

The way I see the OP's photo, the image itself is unexpected, but the ensuing message (of balance of nature and food chain) is not. However, I also admit that the dictionary meaning of serendipity (as posted by "Moving on") points to merely happy unexpected incidents without the underpinnings of unexpected connections. That said, I see a major advantage in thinking beyond dictionary meanings and analyzing (or distinguishing) the implications as opposed to face values. Language doesn't always provide for such distinctions, I agree.