Hardly ordinary at all

A Chrysler to remember
London, ON, August 2009
[Click photo to enlarge. Click here for more on this week's Thematic Photographic theme, blue]

I get a lot of grief, often from complete strangers, for dragging my camera bag around town with me. It takes up too much space. It's bad for my back. I look silly. Everyone's got an opinion, apparently, and no one seems terribly shy about expressing it.

Yet I still carry it because you just never know when an idea will spark out of nowhere. Photography to me isn't something that comes out of a dusty box only on birthdays and other special occasions. It's the story of my life, my family's life, my community's life, and the unpredictable and ever-changing world around us. I can hardly capture any of that unpredictability if my camera's sitting in the closet while I'm out and about.

So on this day, I risked ligament damage in my lower back on an otherwise routine trip to the local supermarket with our youngest son. After we got out of the car, I noticed this pristine blue Chrysler Crossfire - the prettiest marketing failure you'll ever see - parked nearby and thought it might be fun to collect some bits of data on the memory card.

As I set up for the shot, my son and I spoke about why we were shooting something that seemed so ordinary, and why we took the time to remember the little things. He looked through the viewfinder and agreed it didn't look so ordinary when we saw it this way.

He'll do just fine.

Your turn: An ordinary scene worth remembering. Please discuss.