Perseverance and Luck

Perserverance and Luck. There is a saying that a leading football club owner didnt want a talented skilled manager, they just needed a lucky one. In the 6 weeks leading up to my arrival on the small valdes peninsula, an american tourist had paid a lot of money to travel from his homeland to stay on the peninsula for 6 weeks to photograph orcas beaching themselves to eat seals. He didn't see a single orca. As for me, I rocked up at one spot and within 2 minutes saw a pod of 4 orcas nudging up the coastline, 3 large and a baby. A few weeks ago I filmed a glacier calving at the right spot because I guessed correctly. No skill is involved whatsoever, just luck. But there is a line there - how much persistence and perseverance makes your own luck? If that poor and actually now poorer american had stayed another two days, he'd have seen 7 orcas attack the beach. Staggeringly frustrating. 

When Enough is Enough

For me, I never know when enough is enough - to count your winnings or your losses, and then walk away happy. Logically, it has to come down to cost-benefit i.e. does the benefit outweigh the cost that youre giving (money, time, love). Can you do something for less cost and get better, equal or near-enough benefit? As i write this, I sit this as I wait for one high tide at Shark Attack Beach! Chances of them arriving are low...and yet! Theyve been spotted in the area two days in a row. For me, I have to drive 1500km in the next 52hrs, so have it all to do. The difference though would be driving 1500km in 55hrs. When it comes down to it, its marginal. And if I'm lucky again, that 1500km will simply fly by with wonderful memories of orcas catching seals, singing songs and playing the harp. If not, I can reminisce about how lucky I was....or more likely, what a fucking waste of time that last 4 hours was, and aren't I old enough to know better? And when does that saying start to really bring home the bacon?

​To add to it, its colder today, the sun being swaddled by cloud, more cloudy to make the lighting harder for photographs, the push for perseverance is harder. Harder and colder. The more you want something, the higher the cost. And the sun has just come out.