Be prepared.

The motto of the boy scouts, but should be adopted by photographers as well. 

No photo with this post. That is because I missed the opportunity. 

Last night I was out after dark, I had set my ISO to 3200. I came home tired and went to bed. 

This noting I was up while the sun was still low in the sky. I grabbed my camera ( after setting the coffee pot to brew, of course) and went outside to the balcony. A very nice warm side light was hitting the tops of the royal palms.  Beautiful. I spent a few minutes just watching. 

Then a woodpecker land just under the Crest of a palm and began to peck away in the light. Perfect. Up comes the camera with 70-200. Perfect. Half-press. Drat. 1/8000 and flashing. Iso 3200. Drat. Button, spin, spin, flap-flap-flap, spin. Exposure perfect, bird gone. 

Sigh. 

On the other hand maybe those few minutes of serenity were worth it. There will be other birds, but I will never have those minutes again.