The Rule of the Contrary

There is a rule floating around out there in the ether similar to Murphy's Law which states that almost the opposite of what you expect to happen will happen. I have been aware of it for long enough that I have used it to affect outcomes.

Let me give you an example. There are two lines at a drive-up bank. One has two cars, the other three. It seems obvious that I should get in the line having only two cars, insuring I get to the window at approximately the same time as the third car in the other line. Except I know about the Rule of  the Contrary and outwit it by taking the fourth slot in the long line. (This also works in lines at grocery stores and large box stores too, by the way.)

I wouldn't normally post a butt shot, but I thought it was interesting

to see how they let their feet just hand down while sampling the flowers.

And, sure enough, the guy at the head of the line is not only doing his personal banking, but his boss also asked him to drop off the receipts from the day's business and I am going to be in line for a freaking hour watching the other line and wondering if I should jump ship and get in that line where fully nine people have completed their transactions and left. That, my friends, is the Rule of the Contrary.

I mention it because it also applies to many other situations, including filming birds. We had hanging baskets of petunias on the front porch all summer, but I never saw a hummingbird pay them a bit of attention. In order to have at least the possibility of filming a hummingbird at a flower I decided the best course of action was to go to a nursery and purchase a flower that they might find attractive and hang it near the feeder. No sooner had I done this and hung it up than I saw the hummingbirds paying visits to the petunias. Of course, when these visits occurred, the camera settings would be all wrong and I would be set up a little too far away and, by the time I had adjusted camera settings, they would be gone.

So, here are some of the pictures I took, mostly at some distance, when the hummingbirds would visit the petunias hanging on the porch.