If you follow this post, you know that it has been a rather busy time for me lately. Over the last few years, I haven’t traveled as much as in the more distant past. Typically I’ve had three or four trips a year for business and then a couple or three for pleasure. This summer has been a recent exception– NYC, Reading/Winchester England, New Orleans, and over the past three weeks Barcelona, San Francisco and then off to the mountains of Tennessee’s central basin for a week-long vacation with the family.  When I’ve gone quite some time without posting, I always feel that the next post should be something big and significant. That need just seems to delay the next post even further. Instead, I decided to just go ahead and post whether it be epic or not.

Successful photographers often suggest slowing down and using a more contemplative approach to photography. I understand the value of this and can appreciate what can be achieved if you really take in the surroundings, pre-visualize the photographic result you seek, and then bring technology into harmony with the setting to put forth the vision that resides in your imagination. I also understand that almost every one of the photographs that I am proud of are a result of having my camera set properly for the surroundings and then just being alert when something happens.

That’s what occurred for the photo above. My wife and I were just hanging around Jackson Square in New Orleans checking things out when I saw this lady with a bright sunflower umbrella was about to enter the store. I knew she was just on the verge of entering the shade and the opportunity would be missed so I just whipped up my camera, focused, composed, and hoped everything was set right. In the end I’m pretty happy with the result.

Later,

Dwight