We all do it.  It’s sometimes referred to as the morning grind.  Getting up, having coffee and a shower, getting dressed and leaving for work.  If you are a user of public transit, there are even more protocols to observe.  It’s all very ritualistic.

Despite those daily habits, and if we allow ourselves to, we do manage to take notice of the beauty that surrounds us.

Autumn is a very special time of year for many of us.  The colours call out to us, and their short-lived nature, sometimes only lasting a few of weeks, remind us that nothing is permanent in life.

I was lucky this season.  I noticed a beautiful tree on my way to the bus stop, and tried to take a few pictures with my smart phone, but that didn’t seem to do the scene any justice.  I needed to come back with my “real” camera.  And then an opportunity presented itself to me…  I had the time available on a Saturday morning, the sun was out briefly on what was to be a rainy day, but more importantly, I made the connection between opportunity and action.

Tripods have a funny way of slowing you down as you set up the shot.  Funny in that they force you to really take notice of your surroundings as you make choices about camera distance, angles and about what to include or exclude from the frame.  They are, in some respects a metaphor for the choices that humans make about interactions with their surroundings.