In another post I mentioned how photography and luck go hand-in-hand. But what happened here, is the epitome of how luck can literally “make” a photograph!

February 2014, and the winter is particularly brutal this year here in Toronto! Continuing freezing temperatures and back-to-back storms!

Still, there is an unparalleled beauty to the snow coming down. I was experimenting with my iPhone and its amazing panoramic features when I suddenly saw this little guy emerging through the snow on our deck, right next to the summer table, which is now covered-up and snowed-in.

I snapped a photo with my iPhone just in case I missed him later, and rushed for my SLR.

It only took 2 minutes, but … what a disappointment! By the time I was back he was gone!

“Too good to be true”, I am thinking.

The snow was still falling and I was firing-away at the landscape when I saw something literally jumping out in my viewfinder!

Never planned for it and surely I didn’t expect it either!

I couldn’t believe my luck! There he was, in all his glory, sitting right in front of me on the deck railing this time, at a distance of 10 feet. As if this wasn’t lucky enough, he had a nut in his paws! He was too consumed with his newly-found treasure that hadn’t even noticed me! Little buggers, they hide them somewhere, I bet! He just sat there, modeling for me.

The incredible Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM fired away, wide-open to throw-off the background, and freeze motion in the low natural light, and …voilà! Tricky one to perfect right-off camera, but thanks to RAW shooting and post processing in Adobe’s Camera Raw (later redone in Lightroom) and then Photoshop CS6 it all came to life.

Pure luck, I tell you!

Snapshot from my iPhone, before the “miracle” happened!
Casual shooting for my stock library, right before he jumped on the deck railing you see here, right in front of me!