A scene from an airport

Liquid metal?
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 2007 [Click to enlarge]

The scene: May 11th, 6:22 p.m. EDT. I've just deplaned from one of the longest direct flights in existence: a 14+ hour monster of a hop from Shanghai to Toronto. I've already said goodbye to the rest of my Canadian travel companions, most of whom live in the Toronto area. I'm alone in Pearson International Airport, and I've got a few minutes to kill before I report to my gate for the last quick flight to London, a mere 170 km away.

I am, in a word, exhausted. But I still find myself fascinated by the architecture of this new terminal. I used to fly through the very old, very dowdy, and now very decommissioned Terminal 2. So the spanking new Terminal 1 is a revelation for my tired eyes.

I see a relatively simple water fountain and decide it's worth trying to shoot. It's little more than water cascading down the inside of panes of glass, but its simplicity draws my eye. I drop the camera bag and all my assorted travel fixins to the floor and pull out the Nikon with the long lens. I'm standing about 20 feet away from my target, smack in the middle of a well-travelled pedestrian corridor. I garner a lot of funny stares for breaking the flow of traffic, but I'm too tired to really care. No one's wearing a security guard's outfit, so I'm good. For now, anyway.

I try a few different aperture/shutter speed settings to ensure I bring at least one workable image home. Five minutes later, I'm done. I toss the camera back in its bag, hoist everything back on my shoulder and slowly trudge to my gate. Another quick moment in a long trip that seems to have had many rich opportunities.

Your turn: What three words come to mind as you look at this image?

One more thing: I've gone lens-happy in airports before. Water seems to be a recurring theme. See here and here for more.