I Almost Drowned Today

Okay. Note quite.

For the first time all winter, I decided to engage in a little photography. Granted, I had taken some snapshots over Christmas and other such events, but this was the first time where I actually took my tripod and drove around - with the sole purpose of taking landscape pictures - since last October.

Truth be told, the cold weather in these parts - complete with five feet of snow piled up - is quite a deterrent from wanting to set out on such adventures. But today, with clear blue skies, I decided that I had to take advantage of such a nice day.

So I set out for a few places in my town. First, I went to the old Meeting House just down the road. None of the pictures I took of that vintage building were to my liking. Then I went over to a covered bridge on the other side of town. I had been eying this structure for quite a while, trying to figure out the best point to shoot it from. So I set off down stream to see if I could get a nice shot of the fast rapids, with the bridge in the background.

Fortunately, it appeared as though someone else had trekked through the snow already, setting a path for me. But when I got down stream and realized there were no good places that I would be able to get the bridge in the background, I tried to leap over a small dip in the snow, only to fall down and break through a little bit of ice. I was up to my ankles in water, desperately trying to get out.

Finally, I managed to pull my self out of the ankle deep water. My camera, which I had been carrying with my tripod, had taken a nose-dive into the snow, covering the whole backside of the camera. Fortunately, no damage was done to it. And, fortunately, my wet foot dried off fairly quickly as I walked around.

I was disappointed that I did not get the picture I was looking for - a better vantage point would have been on the other side of the river, but in order to get to the other side of the river, I would have had to slide down about a 75 foot embankment, with no promise that I would be able to stop before I reached the icy waters below. I figured it wasn't worth the risk.

So, I just retraced my footsteps and returned to my car.

Fortunately, I decided to linger a little longer at the bridge and take some other pictures of it. As is often the case in photography, though I set out with one particular shot in mind, I ended up taking some other shots that I thought turned out pretty good. I never would have captured them, more than likely, if I had just packed up my belongings and headed home after my failed attempt at getting the picture I had in mind.

After spending about 30 minutes at the bridge, I came away with a few shots that I am pleased with (of course, I would have preferred a few better ones, too). This is the way it goes with photography. One of the most important things a person can do is to slow down. I guess there's a spiritual lesson there somewhere.

All in all, after taking about 75-100 pictures in about 2 hours, I came away with probably 2-3 that I'm semi-happy with. That's photography for you as well.

Which of the two below do you prefer? The color, or black-and-white?