Although I am certain I miss taking great photos every single day, there are a few occasions when I’m painfully aware of it. As a rule, I carry my camera with me whenever I walk in the neighborhood and I have it in my car often. When I’m walking with my camera, it is almost always in my hand and ready to use.

Not that that guarantees getting any photo, let alone a good one. On many occasions, I’ve stood, camera in hand, watching some ephemeral delight, such as the time a hawk flew in front of Merri and me at eye-level (ours, not its), barely 8 feet from us. I don’t regret those occasions because seeing is more important than capturing.

On the other hand, I kick myself (possible thanks to years of yoga) for not having my camera when I should. That happened again tonight as we watched a hawk flying with prey dangling from its talons against a twilight sky. It would have been a tough capture, but possible (thanks to camera technology plus a quick response, had I demonstrated such). So, we stood in the darkening, watching the silhouetted hawk atop a telephone pole, plucking and tossing feathers left and right. A beautiful picture of a terrible ending for some other creature. The one that got away, yet didn’t.