The Money Shot

Published on Monday, May 23, 2016 by Katherine

How many times have you seen a picture that stopped you in your tracks? One that was perfectly timed, capturing a moment that is not often seen, much less caught in a photograph? I think every photographer dreams of that single once in a lifetime shot.

This weekend I had my chance.

AND MISSED IT.

I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to take a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the water. In Corolla they are usually far away. If you are lucky enough to see them close they are often swimming underwater feeding on schools of menhaden.

To see one jump? Amazing. To capture it in a photo? Almost unheard of. After all, you don’t even know where they will come out of the water, IF they are going to jump at all.

When I have my camera on the beach I keep it in sports mode and on burst. This enables me to get some pretty decent pictures of wildlife either swimming or flying by.

Camera? Beach? Not a good combination. My zoom lens has sand in it. This makes it a struggle to focus, much less take a picture. Sometimes I will push the button and the camera doesn’t even take a picture. But if I kept my zoom lens safe and sound in the house, what is the point of even having one?

Back to my missed shot. We were walking on the beach after dinner and noticed a lone surfer pretty far out. My son asked me to take a picture so we could zoom in to see who it was. I manipulated my camera, working as hard as I could to get it to focus. I pushed the button, only to hear silence. When I pushed again I heard a click, but no burst mode. That is when I saw it.

The minute my camera went “click,” a dolphin flew out of a wave, arching completely out of the water before splashing back in. If my lens had worked correctly I would have had a spectacular series of shots. A sunset, a surfer and a dolphin slowly emerging out of a wave, flying up to the sky and back down in to the water.

corolla dolphin