If you continually put yourself in situations that are likely to yield interesting subjects, there is a higher chance that you will be presented with a shot that is truly unique. Every day I have my camera with me and I curse its weight and bulk. But shots like these more than justify the effort.
On the day I took this photo I hadn't envisioned this shot, but I was there with my gear searching for a good shot of birds near Willamette Falls. I haven't seen Herons at the Falls very often, in fact this may have been the first time.
I was tracking one through the sky above and as such I was getting some OK shots with the gray sky as a background. But when one banked toward the Blue Heron Paper Mill building and logo I began to hope that getting them in proximity might be possible.
I was fully extended at 300mm, so with my ISO at 800 and aperture at f8, I was shooting at 1/640th of a second. I tracked the heron as he flew toward the sign and fired off some shots that I hoped would be in focus.
I took four shots of this fly by, and while the first and the last were just a bit blurry, this shot and another were great, and I had myself a unique picture that often reminds me to have my camera ready, especially where there are subjects worth capturing.