This week Sofia invites us to show photos where luck played a big role. Whether we were in the right place at the right time, or took a chance on a photo that turned out to be a winner, there are many ways to stumble into a Lucky Shot.
I was walking along the shore of Long Beach, WA one September day when suddenly a large flock of Brown Pelicans swooped by above the churning tide. So much was happening all at once, I left my camera on auto focus, pointed the lens toward the birds and keep pressing the shutter button. Each of the photos that came from that event are true Lucky shots!
Have you ever tried to get a clear photo of a male Red-winged Blackbird in the wild? Over the ten years I’ve been walking through marshy spring fields with my camera, listening to their liquid trill while snapping countless shots, I have exactly one that is worthy of posting to Lens-Artists, which is why I believe it qualifies as a Lucky shot!
When I saw this Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) harassing a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), I wanted to capture the event. The scuffle went on for a while, and again there was way too much action to get a clear shot with my equipment. Still, to get a shot at all makes it Lucky!
The St. Louis Carousel (1924) in Faust Park, next to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, beckoned my sisters and me to take a ride. As the carousel began to slow, I thought I’d see if I could get a shot of the horses reflections upon the inside windows, against the outside background of trees and grass. A lucky winner.
Lindy Low LeCoq 
Lindy, these are terrific lucky shots! I love them all but the carousel and the moon are my two favorites. I’ve also been known to just aim and and hope for the best when photographing birds. And we both have a husband who will wake us up to see something spectacular. In my case my husband woke me up to see a late night sunset in Alaska.
Lindy, thanks for sharing these great shots. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite here. I like them all.
The carousel horses are amazing! And that moon! I’m not the photographer you are, but I have a couple of lucky shots, one the permanent wallpaper on my phone of my granddaughter bending over the dog, both ankle-deep in the Guadalupe River. Shots like that are magic!