One of the things I notice when following other photographers, is they typically don't talk about their failures, they're always going on about their successes and how damn awesome they are. I agree, they're awesome, but people who are that awesome usually have some terrible horrible secret like they're currently wearing a coat made from their neighbour's skin.

I am only awesome some of the time, other times I suck and I currently do not have a torture chamber in my home. Science.

I'll start with my failures at Frank Lake. 

Frank Lake is a lake slough south east of Calgary, loved for its great bird watching opportunities.  Now I'll admit, sometimes I have delusions of grandeur so early one cold spring morning I woke early to go photograph some birds with my measly 200mm lens. 

Failure #1. I got lost.  Fortunately, I often get lost and had budgeted "lost in the middle of the prairie at 4:30 am" into the timeline of the day. I eventually found the place just as the sun was coming up.

Failure # 2. Right in line with my delusions of grandeur, I seriously over estimated how long a 200mm lens was.  I found the birds all right, thousands of them. Geese, ducks and swans swimming and flying around all birdlike and cute.  Could I get a decent shot?  Not if my life depended on it. The whole reason for being there, kiboshed. 

Failure # 3.  Did not scout a bathroom. Granted, this failure could have ended much worse as accidents were avoided but do you know how difficult it is to locate so much as a tree on the prairies? The entire place was not designed with women in mind.

Failure # 4. This is a doozy.  I did not properly prepare myself  for tromping around a slough.  It was surprisingly freeeeeezing cold and I had not brought proper freeeeeezing cold clothing.  I also failed to pack rubber boots, which are apparently essential for tromping around a slough (pft who knew?!).  This is where the failures culminate into plain stupidity.  I didn't have proper clothing and my lens was not sufficient for what my goals for the day were, so I tip toed closer to the birds to try to get a decent photo and wound up getting sucked into the mud and water a good distance away from the truck. I ended up soaking wet in freezing weather and my feet were so unbelievably cold I had to hobble back to the truck. At that point I gave up. I also gave up my hopes for ever climbing Everest.  Evidently I don't do well with cold.

However, with every good failure, there should be a success story so as to not get you down, so I can happily say that I did come back from that trip with some of my favourite prairie landscape shots. Just no birds. Or toes.