Happy Sunday! This week, Sofia is the host for the 393rd Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and she has me pondering about when was the last time I had a photograph taken pure in the moment and purely by luck.

Earlier this year, I took a day off from work when I discovered I had reached my paid-leave limit and must take time off in order to start accumulate again. I don’t usually take time off early in the year as it’s winter and most of the spots I usually venture to are still closed. Unless you’re in skiing and winter sports, there’s not very many places to go during the winter months.

After some searching, I found one, and it wasn’t far. It was also so happened to be the perfect place to try out my new 150-600 mm lens, which was the lens used to capture this image. I decided to park my car off the road, get the tripod and tried to see what I could capture.

I rotated the camera, zoomed in and out, attempting to find a subject. Just then, I feel something in the landscape move. It was this bird landing on one of the reeds. Thankfully, the auto-focus worked. I wanted to take another photo but the bird took off.

I hope you agree that a substantial amount of luck must had been present in the air with I took this photo. I also hope that you agree that these kids’ facial reactions are priceless. The way they were staring at this giant bubble, I feel like they were looking at it like they were expecting something or someone will appear when the bubble’s popped.

This photo was taken at the end of April five years ago. This was at the Utah State Capitol during the annual cherry blossom period or in Japan, it’s called the “Sakura” season. These are all Yoshino Cherry trees, planted in similar fashion as those in Washington D.C.

My mom would often say, “Why do we need to go to D.C. to cherry blossoms when we have it 30 minutes away?”

The last time I went to see the sakura blossom was 2024.

My final photo is from my first trip to Canada in 2017. My aunt was heading down the Icefield Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Park while I was snapping away on my camera. I didn’t see this photo until later when I loaded it onto the computer. There it was, a bird soaring over the rockies.