you just never know

When you take a photo, you just never know what kind of reaction you might get to it. For instance, take this picture of a rhinoceros hornbill. I spent waaaay too much time photographing the two hornbills at the Denver Zoo (I think my wife was ready to bodily move me along) simply because I was so fascinated by them. But since posting this photo on Flickr, zoos in Texas and Pennsylvania have asked for permission to use it.

I didn't set out thinking that if I photographed this bird, I'd have zoos across the country asking to use it... I just got some shots of the hornbills because I thought they looked cool & because I was enjoying a day at the zoo. The lesson I've taken away from this experience is that it's important to photograph what interests you, have fun while you're doing it, and not worry about what kind of response you might get to your photos. Some of my favorite photos haven't received many looks at all on Flickr, while photos I thought were just so-so have been raved over and got hundreds of hits. You just never know. So what's most important is to be present in the moment, have fun with the experience, and to hopefully maybe learn something new (technically) from each outing (what could I have done differently with the camera settings? could there have been a better way to compose the shot? would the light be better if I went back at a different time of day? etc...)


And just between you & me, this baby giraffe is actually my favorite photo from that day at the Denver Zoo:


Thanks for reading about stuff I've photographed. ~Rich