A Really Exciting "Got-The-Shot"

I Got the Shot. It is unbelievable. With the skittish couple this Spring, I didn’t think the photograph would be had… but I Got the Shot!

There is a little background you should be aware of to understand the importance of this “Got The Shot.” A few years ago, I met and became friends with two wonderful people, Joe Ann and Norm. At the Mother-Daughter Tea event at church one year, I was taking pictures/portraits. Joe Ann and her family asked to have a family portrait. What made their’s quite different was the five generations present for the portrait. This family portrait turned out so well I asked Joe Ann if it would be alright to enter the picture in the County Fair. It won second place for portrait. After the Mother-Daughter Tea, Joe Ann began to take more interest in my photography, especially photographing cardinals. She always had an encouraging word when we met.

The day Joe Ann died, the cardinals seemed to be quite active around the yard. I had been trying for sometime to get a close up photograph of a female cardinal. Not 5 feet from my window a female cardinal landed and stayed on the same limb for over 15 minutes. She could see me as I moved around the window frantically taking pictures. I expected any minute for her to fly away. She did not budge from the limb. And then what must have been her mate landed on a nearby branch. He too, did not move for several minutes and put on a show of fluffing his feathers. It was a cold day, and we were getting the first snowflakes of winter.

In the middle of this “photo shoot” with the cardinals, the phone rang. It was my husband who is the pastor of Greenwood United Methodist Church. He told me Joe Ann had just passed away and asked for the prayer line to be activated.

It seemed as though the female cardinal had taken the spirit of Joe Ann. It made sense that Joe Ann would have willed that cardinal to be there for me to get the picture she knew I’d wanted so much.

A few weeks later I shared this thought and experience with the family. Each grown child received a photograph of the female cardinal taken the day Joe Ann died. Norm received the female cardinal photograph but also a photograph of the male.

This Spring the “Kissing Cardinals” as I refer to them, have been coming to the back yard many times throughout the day. And there are many more cardinals coming into the yard to feed. I have been trying for years to take an up close picture that is crisp and in focus of this pair as they “kiss.” They are not actually kissing, they are passing seeds to one another as an expression of affection. Each time I would slowly, cautiously, sneak up to the window with camera in hand, they would fly away.
A couple of days ago, I got a photograph of them kissing but when I looked at the picture on the computer screen, the female was bald and the male’s plumage was discolored and some spots were bare. True love is blind to the outward appearances and this pair did not see their imperfections.

But today, I took the picture of another couple within ten feet from the window and in perfect focus. It appears there are more than one pair of “Kissing Cardinals” this year. That is a real blessing.

This year the “Kissing Cardinals” picture was extra important to me. My dear friend, Norm, passed away a couple of weeks ago. Is that why the cardinals have been plentiful this Spring? And now to have at least two pair of “Kissing Cardinals” has been very meaningful in understanding and coping with Norm’s death.

Norm and Joe Ann are once again together. And as they did on earth with their family and friends, they are now sharing their seeds of faith with one another. That, to me is why the “Kissing Cardinal” picture was so important this year. The family will have that picture to complete their set.