A grumpy looking little barn swallow takes a short break after filling up on bugs along a roadside marsh. I took this photo this past spring just outside of Airdrie where a pond in a farmer's field came up to the road. I sat back as the sun went down watching these birds that were in the thousands pick insects from the air with pinpoint accuracy.
The biggest struggle I have with nature photography is getting out to my location prior to sunrise. Like most people my biological clock tells me to stay in bed. On this day, I did exactly that. I was angry that I was still a half hour away from the place I intended to photograph as the sun was rising. Lucky for me I saw a dot in the middle of a pond beside the road as I flew by in a hurry to catch the last bit of the sunrise. Intrigued, I turned around to find a loon swimming around in the dense fog. For nearly a half hour I was able to sit back and enjoy watching this majestic bird dive under the surface to catch some fish. Sometimes sleeping pays off. This experience far surpassed the experience I would have had rushing around to get a landscape photo.
