It’s all about the moment

Being in the right place at the right time is the crux for wildlife photographers- getting into the right place at the right time is something else. Local knowledge, knowing your species and understanding their behavior certainly increases your chances for getting a useful image, but all this needs an additional dose of good luck to really kick things off. This secretary bird was observed starting to build a nest. We watched the pair slowly add twigs to the nest over a couple of days and they also began to settle down with our presence. Then, suddenly one morning the male was collecting twigs behind the nest, his beak now full, I realized there was a chance he would fly to the nest to deposit them. No sooner was I in what I thought was a good position when he took off and in those split seconds it all came together.