Driving along Harvestwood Road north of Floyd. Late afternoon. The sun setting on the western horizon. At the intersection with Sandy Flats Road, I stopped and pulled out my camera. Beautiful light. A bird of some type gliding on air currents in the distance. I couldn’t tell the species until I viewed it through a 400mm telephoto. An eagle, with the setting sun providing the perfect backdrop.

No time to bracket exposures or reach for a tripod. Point, compose and shoot. Just a couple of shots before the magnificent creative flew out of my (and the camera’s) field of vision. A second in time, captured by happenstance.

In photography, we call this a grab shot. Unplanned. Only a second or two to react. In photojournalism, grab shots were standard fare. We lived for them.

Some things never change.