An insect flew right on my hand and I ran with that insect on my hand to get my point and shoot and I got off two frames before it flew away. That insect on my hand has been used by blogs and websites for illustration purposes. That was serendipity or happy accident. That was something that I never expected to happen. It has not happened again since then.

Insect on my hand, it flew on it

I live in the boonies here in Washington state and we get a lot of deer in our yard. We have a willow tree they love to munch on. We planted thyme to keep them away, now they have gotten used to it, that willow tree is looking quite Delicious.

Print the photo, it looks really interesting and really does wonders and I would gather, it will make a nice wall hanging on you wall.

Hi, glare is a problem with point and shoots and as with any equipment there are pros and cons. When I go to a place that has very little shade and the glare will be a problem, I bring a small umbrella with me and I use it. I get a lot of stares but I want that photo and I developed a thick skin. I have been taking photographs since 1979 and have had to get into a lot of interesting positions to get that shot. I learned to smile, ignore and do what I had to do to photograph my subject. I h ope this helps.

Thank you all for your kind comments. Do any of you have photos that came to you by accident or you did not anticipate? These shots, I was at the right place at the right time. And, I kept my nose to the ground.

In photography there are shots that are planned and then there are the shots that come to you in the most unusual ways that may be once in a lifetime experience. I have a few and they have been a great source of story telling. How about you? How did you get your serendipity? Please share. We would love to see.

this bee photo, was supposed to catch this bee on a sedum flower, getting it meal from it. When I snapped the shutter, the bee flew away and I went @#*$ as I thought the shot had been ruined. I realized as I was downloading from the disk to the computer, that I had caught the bee in flight.

This shot is of the slug eating a blade of grass. I was in the back yard, going into my house when I noticed something strange about that slug. I bent down and saw this slug eating that blade of grass. I ran into the house as fast as I could and got my point and shoot and was able to shoot a few frames. I have never been able to replicate this shot again.

This third shot, I was outside with my cat Casey and she sat beside these decorative stones and I bent down to pet her when I saw this snake trying to make a meal of this slug. It took sometime for the snake to back into the bushes and make a meal of the slug. I forgot to pet Casey as I ran like lightning to get my camera and take a series of shots.

Serendipity: Bee in flight, I never knew I caught it


Shot of a Lifetime, slug eating a blade of grass


Snake hqving slug for dinner

I would call this serendipity or being at the right place at the right time. I am sure that there are many stories out there. I have a few. I was taking a photo of a bee on a Sedum flower, and it flew away while I snapped the photo. It was later that I discovered while downloading to the computer that I caught the bee in flight. I thought the shot had been ruined.

Serendipity: Bee in flight, I never knew I caught it

that head shot solves a lot of problems. Good call.

Welcome to the forum. I too have a moldy oldie PC and I bought a card reader her two years ago for $32.00 which would be about 40 pounds give or take. There are cheaper readers out there. I had to upgrade my PC to 0ne gigabyte of memory. I just bought a laptop Toshiba with three gigs and a 230 MB hard drive. The old PC still works for processing photos, but eats up memory and I have to reboot often. But the card readier helped a lot.

In the photo of the puppy I used the burn tool to darken and bring out more highlights in the puppy and the white sofa cloth. As a grab shot it is a really nice one. but if you had a shady spot that would have been nice to. I used Photo Shop Elements 10.

I used the burn tool to darken the puppy

I have been taking photos of bees with a point and shoot for years. The first point and shoot was a 3.2 MP Olympus that has now given up the ghost. I have a fujiZ70 and that has given me some nice photos also. The rule of thumb for me was for every 100 bee photos I took, 80 were deleted. the remaining 20, 10 were nice but only 2 or 3 were fantastic. If I had to count how many bee photos I deleted, I would say in the millions.

Bee on a a Daisy, 3.2 MP Olympus


bee on a black eyed susan, 3.2 MP Olympus


Bee on Lavender flower Olympus S5010 , 14MP

Both of my grandparents are dead now, but sometimes they do offer opportunities that come spontaneously and it is our job to take it. I was sitting across from my grandparents with my camera in my hand ready to shoot a photo of them. They noticed that and they started to play and pose and this was the end result.

Grandpa pointing to Eve's(grandma's)apple


Laaughing at the joke

I got my first SLR in 1979, light years before digital. I read the small pamphlet that came with the camera and one of the points was that look behind or preview your scene or subject as you might have and object sticking out of his/her head. My brother, mother and grandparents went to the Tucson foothills for a short hike. My brother was high on a rock and I took a photo of him. I did not look at what was behind him. When I got the photo back, he had a nice green cactus sticking out of his head. I had just read that pamphlet to preview your background. Live and learn.

Oops sorry Gordon, I should have gone a little lower in my reply.