I learned years ago that when the photo gods smile on you, you should thank them. And the proper way to do that is to drop to your knees, raise your hands over your head and bow down several times while saying, "Thank you photo gods, thank you photo gods."

Mark Kettenhofen (a Nikon Tech Rep) taught me that while on a shoot in Jackson, Wyoming. There were a few seconds that involved one male bison mounting another male bison in the middle of the road, as a bicyclist approached. We were laughing so hard I don't know if anyone got a sharp photo of it.

Leading a trip to Tanzania a month ago, I taught this prayer of thanksgiving to the group after a leopard walked right up to, then under the truck we were shooting from (that's in an earlier blog posting). And I used the prayer again recently, while in Monterey, CA.

I had led a digital photography class at the TED conference there, and later that afternoon walked down to the waterfront hoping to shoot some photos. As usual, there were some sea lions lounging under a pier, and one climbed on top of a railing to soak up some sun. And as it stretched, yawned and generally posed for me for fifteen minutes, I thought of the photo gods prayer.

It also reminded me of how much photography can be luck, being in the right place at the right time. Of course, it helps to know what to do when that happens. In this case there were two keys to making the photo. One was having enough telephoto lens to frame the scene well. 200mm, which I had, was just right. The second was exposing properly. What made the shot work so well was the strong backlight, and the clean, dark background of the water. However, if I'd shot it just as the meter suggested, the highlights would have been overexposed (too bright). Using experience and the Highlight display on the LCD as guides, I dialed exposure compensation to underexpose 1.3 stops. That gave me the dual benefit of darkening the water and their fur, while at the same time holding details in the highlights.

A bit later, as the sun was setting, I happened upon another sea lion lounging on some rocks right next to a jetty. From about eight feet away I had a nice head shot, and just waited for a wave to splash in. Shot at a slow shutter speed, the blur added a nice touch. When the photo gods are smiling, it's hard to miss.