I almost always have my camera with me wherever I go. After all--you just never know when you might be blessed with that Pulitzer Prize-winning shot that ends up on the lower right corner of some obscure blog somewhere right? Yesterday was no exception. I had to take a drive in the work truck (as opposed to the van) and of course, I had my camera with me. It was a beautiful day. Sunny, clear, and a seemingly endless supply of excess traffic so speeds where slow enough for me to ponder my surroundings from a slightly higher vantage point (which is why I like to drive that truck instead of the van).
The first thing I saw that was interesting was an older couple going by me on a Honda Gold Wing. They were going the same direction as me and passing on my left side, so I had a perfect view of them. The bike had a tricycle conversion (which is something you don't see many of), but that's not what I found interesting. Nor was it the bright emerald green jackets they were wearing. That color contrast was striking (okay, gaudy) against the beautiful deep red color of the motorcycle, but again--not what caught my eye. What did catch my eye was the fact that she was reading a paperback book. She had it open against her husband's back and she was doing her best to pretend she was actually riding shotgun in the comfort of her Lexus instead of on the back of a noise machine. Did I get the picture? No. I grabbed for the camera but the wrong lens was on it. Doh! Right then I could have used that autopilot button.
Then a little later I glanced over to my left and saw the strangest little dog looking directly at me. I must have felt his eyes boring holes in the left side of my head. It was the size of a kitten but it looked more like a Schnauzer with a summer haircut. It was just... I don't know--odd. But the fact that it was standing up with his feet against the window looking at me instead of the truck I was in made me wish I had the right lens on. Or an autopilot button.
Then on the way back home there was an accident on the opposite side of the freeway. Nice visuals--although somewhat ordinary these days, and for that I did have the right lens on, but you know what I didn't have? That's right--an autopilot button!
Ah, but my day didn't go without my capturing something. Based on my travels, only in two places in the US would you see something like this: San Francisco or here in the Seattle area. I wasn't going to let this one go by so I just grabbed the camera, aimed, and shot a few "from the hip" because obviously you can't put a camera up to your eye while you're driving, and you know why: No autopilot.
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