Chance favors the prepared photographer

By thinking ahead, maybe you can make a picture that you might otherwise have missed. In this case, I was setting up a macro shot of an unusual red plant (fungus or plant?) when I heard a familiar buzz—that of a hummingbird.

The little guy swooped in to gather whatever sweetness the plant had to offer. All I could do was click the shutter, feeling pretty helpless with the manual-everything 85mm/f2.8 PC-Micro-Nikkor stopped down (manual plunger) and 3-4 stops underexposed. The resulting frame is pushed 2 stops, then further lightened—amazing really, given that any film shot would have been hopeless. Click to see a larger version. A reader was kind enough to inform me what type of plant this is—Sarcodes sanguinea otherwise known as Snow plant. It has no chlorophyll, but derives its sustenance from decaying organic matter, typically in pine tree forests.