Don says: Sometimes you can spend a long time looking for a photo, and sometimes it seems they come looking for you. I had just spent a couple hours in the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge shooting milkweed pods that had burst, and were scattering seeds in the 20 MPH wind gusts. Frustrated with my shots, I decided to head back to my makeshift blind, and wait for gulls or eagles looking for an easy meal after a recent fish kill. For the next hour or so, I watched as the diffused sun descended towards the horizon, and took an occasional shot of seagulls foraging for food or fighting with other gulls over anything found.

While reviewing the “pod shots” I had taken earlier in my camera’s viewfinder, I looked up to see this milkweed seed trying to free itself from a temporary retention spot. I knew immediately that there was my shot. Normally I would have removed my 300mm lens and put on my macro, but I was worried that the seed would free itself before I could get the photo. After a quick burst of shots, I put my camera on a tripod, moved around to find a clean background, opened the aperture to blur the background, and took several more shots before the seed freed itself and “moved on.”