Holding on for dear life

Hiding in plain view
London, ON, November 2011
[Click photo to embiggen]

At first glance, you'd hardly think this scene has anything to do with our "seeing red" theme (here). In fact, the branches first caught my eye because of their geometry and depth. I was so captured by it that as I composed, I idly toyed with the idea of shooting it in black-and-white*.

But it was windy and my fingers were cold, so I really wanted to get the shot over with before stuffing my hands back into my toasty warm pockets. Annals of photography, folks: I just wanted to keep my digits warm.

Anyway, I didn't notice the tiny remnant berries until later, when I got home and saw the pictures up on my monitor. They reminded me of some plucky survivors, holding on against hope, long after anyone else would have given them up for dead. The thought made me smile, because we could all use a little inspirational defiance every once in a while.

Your turn: Holding on despite it all. Please discuss.

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* When I feel that a particular scene would render better in b&w, I deliberately throw the camera into b&w mode. While I've been known to convert color pictures to b&w after the fact, I prefer to shoot them native because that way the camera's sensor is properly calibrated for the task at hand. I've long suspected you lose a hint of sensitivity when you shoot in color and then compensate for it later in software. Consider this example #592 of my retentive nature.