Nothing makes nature photography more difficult than partly cloudy days, at least those in which the clouds blow along at a nice clip.

Why?

Lighting.

Today happens to be just such a day here in North Texas.

Having just returned from a three-hour walk at White Rock Lake, I must admit I find myself rather disappointed in some of the images I captured which held my hopes for something special.

A red-tailed hawk in flight, for example, one of a mated/mating pair that soared and danced their aerial ballet over the woodlands surrounding Dixon Branch, both singing and calling, swooping and diving, gliding along with occasional beating of their wings.  Such beautiful creatures, although they frustrated me by staying mostly behind the tree line.  Still, once in a while they would flirt briefly with open air.  Those were my chances.

But the continuously changing light conditions made it difficult to photograph these creatures since I only had one chance each time they darted out from behind stark winter limbs.  As luck would have it, the camera would be set for sunshine as I pushed the button, yet a cloud would slip in the way and cast the world into shadow.  Or vice versa.

Or a turkey vulture looping effortlessly above the Sunset Bay confluence, its dark wings scarcely more than a breath above the treetops, and who, like the hawks, only once or twice soared into a clear view.  Yet the same tragedy would happen, what with me snapping a photo with one set of options only to have the environment abruptly change to that requiring a completely different set of options.

In both cases, the images are less than spectacular.

And the list goes on.

There’s something to be said for constancy, for having either sunlight or shadow in which to snap pictures of this kind.