Saturday, September 30, 2023

Geometric photobomb

I'll just be a minute
Port Stanley, ON
September 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: In the middle of a beachside photowalk, I crouch down in the wet sand beside the breakwater at the far end of the beach. Ostensibly I’m fascinated by the crisply drawn angles, the textures of the worn concrete, the deep green of the algae that grows at the waterline.

It’s a rich little ecosystem here, one that’s typically overlooked by most folks who wander on past. Even I’m guilty as charged, as we’ve been coming to this idyllic town for years, yet this is the first time I’ve ever really stopped in this particular spot to take it all in. Quiet corners, edges, fringes…I make a silent note to myself to pay more attention to them.

It’s an incredibly bright afternoon, the Sun beating down directly from the south, obliterating my view. So I’m barely able to see what I’m composing. But still, the process matters more than the final result, so I stick with it and hope I can snag something decent along the way.

I barely make out the shadows of someone walking into frame from the top-left, but I’m so focused on maintaining my tenuous balance in between the waves that I ignore the intrusion. I trip the shutter a few times before gravity and my awful sense of balance tell me it’s time to move on to something else - maybe involving less crouching.

Only later when I review the pics do I notice I’ve been photobombed - and I realize the photo I ultimately got wasn’t the one I set out to capture.

It feels like a broader lesson to me, where we can make all the plans we wish, but the planet around us will always throw a wrench or two - or a parasailer - into the works.

And when we stop and think about the spontaneous shift in direction, we realize it was where we were destined to go all along.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #water #pier #breakwater #parasail #silhouette #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:
The grid, August 2021
Institutional green, February 2007
Look up, way up, April 2006

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