It’s funny sometimes on how the best photographs are not the ones you set out to create. I had staked out this particular barn as a sunset possibility Friday evening. It’s brilliant red sides were perfectly in line with the morning sun.

Saturday morning, in the pre-dawn hours, I rolled the dice that the overcast would break. It did not.Sunday was much of the same. But I took a chance again.

After waiting and waiting, the line broke through and illuminated the barn. It was a brilliant shot with my new D700. Then I packed to leave, putting the tripod into the car.

As I looked back, I saw the silos against an amazing sky. I wandered back across the highway – the D700 loaded with my Nikkor 70-300. I knew the birds were there and that the photograph would HAVE TO include them flying.

So, I waited … and waited … and waited. I felt I should go back for the tripod, but decided I could handhold. Then, all of a sudden, a gust of wind send the birds scurrying.

Bang, bang, bang – I blasted off a burst on the motor drive as the birds found a new roost. But in that split second, they gave me a photograph even better than I had hoped from the red barn itself.

Photographer’s Note: The barn is located on US51 in the town of Leeds, just northeast of Madison, Wisconsin.