Most trips I take are with sightseeing and enjoying family and discovering new places in mind. Of course the camera is constantly working then too, but rarely is there time to set up a tripod or wait for light to change. More often it's a quick stop for the shot and then a sprint to catch up with my companions. Mostly I drive everyone crazy because all of the sudden I'm not there. I stepped aside to gather a quick shot of a cute alleyway, or a tree overhead or a group of children or a bunch of flowers or a design on the sidewalk. Everything's interesting in a new place.
It's heavenly when the stars align and the family trip and the photo op combine all together all at once. It happened one late evening in Japan two years ago. With no bus or taxi in sight, we walked toward our hotel around Lake Ashti as it was g
etting darker and darker and we were getting hungrier and hungrier. What seemed at the time a great inconvenience was in fact a gift, as these pictures attest. This wasn't a moment setup, this was a moment lived. I stopped over and again and caught these views, as did the others with their cameras -- it was almost surreal in its beauty and quiet and we weren't so hungry we didn't appreciate it.There is beauty in waiting to find and there is beauty in being found.
Next week is my second-of-all-time photo trip. I'll be heading to the Olympic Peninsula with other equally passionate/fanatical aficionados of the sport, who willingly get up an hour before sunrise to drive to that perfect spot and stay up an hour past sunset to drive home from that best overlook, who are able to take dozens if not hundreds of shots in the same spot at the same time and who get inspired by everything from moss on a tree branch to waves around a seastack.
Maybe I won't drive everyone crazy.
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