Lady Luck + Nature Photography

How important is plain old luck in the process of nature photography?  My own feeling is that it can be a major factor, but only rarely will it be the most important element.  My premiss starts with the idea that getting an image the photographer rates in his top 100 requires a meeting of good fortune and being prepared.  In this equation I count recognizing a great setup as part of being prepared. 

Nature photography forces the photographer to deal with a whole universe of variables that he cannot control.  A cloud passing in front of the sun can make the difference between a good shot and a great shot.  You can hike miles to a remote waterfall and find the torrent is just a trickle.  And when it comes to animals, unpredictability and randomness take center stage.  A good photographer can be given an average situation and still come back with a good shot.  An excellent shot relies on a little good fortune.  A truly brilliant shot requires at least some minor alignment of the planets

Today's shot is of an African Grey Crowned Crane at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia South Carolina.  Not a brilliant shot, but way better than any of the few hundred frames of this bird I've taken over a half dozen trips to this same zoo.  
The Crowned Crane is in a medium sized enclosure along with some other African birds including hornbills and vultures.  In all the trips there I've never seen more than one type of bird in a position to be photographed at one time.  There are a lot of trees in and near the enclosure so the light changes constantly.  The only place to shoot from is a wooden elevated walkway.  So getting down to the animals eye level is difficult.  It's better to shoot the birds at some distance using a long lens.  This shot is done at 400mm on my APS-C Sony A77 for an equivalent 600mm.  To make matters worse the walkway vibrates.  A five year old child walking by will cause enough shake to ruin an image.  Wide bodied people, of which there is no shortage in South Carolina, shake the platform enough you can't even hold focus. 
On weekends the zoo starts to get busy around 11:00.  After 12:00 shaky platforms like this become impossible.  I had already been there about 20 minutes or so, and about to give up and move on, when this guy steps out of the shadows and into the light.  All it took was a touch of adjustment on the manual focus ring, plenty of light where it was needed for the focus peaking to do it's magic.  Shooting at f/5.6 and ISO 320 to get enough shutter speed for a moving subject.  And bird cooperated by ruffling it's feathers to make the shot just a little more interesting. 

It's kind of awesome when lady luck helps you out.