Being at the Right Place at the Right Time

I Owe It All To A Wayward Turkey

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Being at the Right Place at the Right Time

Did I mention the Turkey?!   ...More on that later.  The key to a good photograph is planning and execution.  Planning the concept, the location, and the lighting, and then Executing that plan. However, sometimes it is just about being at the right place at the right time.  Such is the case on Saturday morning.

My friend Rob Miller had his friend Mike Davis--another photographer--visit him from Ohio.  Since he was from out-of-town, he wanted to see the campus of Notre Dame and take some pictures.   So we planned what we were going to do.  We looked to see when the sun was going to rise so that we could get some good light on the campus.   Then we called some of our friends that mentioned to us that they wanted their picture taken and arranged for them to meet us on campus.  And of course Dawn was there to wrangle the models.   We planned the locations that we wanted to shoot, one was on the campus of Notre Dame and the other was at a local park just south of the campus that was on the bank of a river.

Rob and Mike met me in the morning just before sunrise and we got to the campus just after sunrise; our planning was good but our execution was a little off.  We walked around showing Mike the campus and took pictures while we did.  One of the attractions on the campus is the library.  It has one of the largest, if not the largest, mosaic in the word, that of Christ with his arms out-stretched.  The locals call it affectionately “Touchdown Jesus.”

I was standing in front of the library and heard a loud thump and looked at the base of the library where it is all glass and saw that one of the large panes of glass was vibrating.  I just figured it was a result of someone slamming the door.  Then I heard a "gaggle" and saw, coming at me, about a foot off the ground a large turkey.  A Turkey!  it flew right past me gaggleing all the way.  Then this lady ran out of the library and asked what that was and I told her, it was a Turkey!  She thought that was what it was.  

With this chance meeting we started talking about why I and my two friends were there with all the camera equipment.  I told her we were out for a day of shooting and we talked some more.  Then she said:   "Follow me."  So we did; into the building, into the elevator, out of the elevator, up some stairs and then stopped at the door at the top of the stairs.   She got out a set of keys and opened the door and lead us out into a hallway that was too fancy to belong in a library.   (This was actually the floor that Father Hesburg, a past school president, lives on and where the University hold special events.) Then we followed her to another door, and she unlocked that for us and lead us out into the roof of the library!  What an amazing view!!

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