First in a series of occasional posts on photography.

There is always something special about capturing once-in-a-lifetime photographs; what I like to call “Right Time, Right Place Photos”. This holds especially true when you are traveling as you may never return to the place and it is almost certain that the moment the photo captures will never happen again, at least not in the same way.

I used to live in Maine when I was a girl. At the time, I did not own a camera, nor had the passion I have now for photography. My memories were of my Mom’s Kodak Brownie that captured all of our most often stiffly posed childhood memories. Some of those memories included several trips to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. As a child, I could not appreciate the incredible natural beauty of this place. Only as an adult, did I learn what it is that my parents in taking me there were trying to teach me – a deep appreciation for nature. Two of the things that my mother taught me still stay with me today. One is bird watching and the other is listening to nature. Both have given me the skill to be ready to capture that special photograph whenever I go hiking in the woods.

Woodpecker on birch tree

This photo was taken at Schooner Head. It was during the government shutdown in October 2013, so access to the park was limited. We were on a path just below the overlook. I suddenly heard pecking and told my husband to stand still and not speak. My ears led me to the source of the sound – a woodpecker on a birch tree. At the time, all I had was a Lumix DMC-FZ28 superzoom digital camera. Bigger than a point and shoot but nothing fancy, that day it was enough. At first I could not see the woodpecker, only hear the rapid fire ‘tap, tap, tap’. I figured out which tree it was on and set my focus, then waited as the bird worked its way around the tree. When the moment felt right, I pressed the shutter button.

Let me know what you think.