There is a time to work fast. The light may be fading. The hunt may be on. The moment may be fleeting. But let's face it, there are also times when nothing seems to be going on. That is the time to slow down. This is the time to sit still and just observe. Watch the bird movement. Can you use this time to figure out where their favorite perches are? Can you figure out where their nests are? How about using this time to truly explore? This way, when the good light comes we are better prepared.

          One day in Tanzania it was a slow day. So I practiced my own advise. I noticed some lovebirds going back to the same tree over and over. So I thought that perhaps I could find a nest. I walked over to that tree and just started searching. I looked and looked, but the nest was never found. Neither did the lovebirds pose nicely. There were too many branches and leaves in the way. If you have read my bird image blogs, you will also know that bird images are typically best when taken from their eye level. Standing on the ground beneath a tree shooting up into a tree is hardly going to provide great bird images. However, even without an image taking it slow and genuinely looking around may reveal something we can photograph later on. So I still recommend it.

          Yes, you guessed it, I did find something. It was not the birds that I were initially after. But taking it slow and looking helped me to discover what I would have never seen otherwise. There was no movement. There was no noise. There was no way to find it but to slowly look and search. This is what the search revealed:

It may not be the greatest image but it is the only image of a bat that I ever took. A few moments later, while I was still looking I saw:

Slowing down and looking may not always produce results, but the information we gather may help our photography as we possibly uncover a nest, a bat, a snake, droppings that may alert us to something going on, finding a favorite perch, etc. It also helps us to enjoy nature and to get out of the rat race, even for just a while.