« Before Sunset | Main | guess what I did today... »
July 16, 2004
spider webs of my mind
The other day on the bike trail I passed a fabulous picture. There was still a mist out, and just at the moment I was riding by a sliver of sun was shining through a group of trees, and right on a spider web... Not just any spider web, but one of those perfectly formed spider webs that you see mostly as drawings in books. The dew was still hanging on and the sun falling across it was just perfect.
Of course there are two rules that always seem to apply here...
1.) You cannot make a picture happen. Whenever you try it just looks like it.
2.) When you find the perfect picture, at least 80% of the time you wont have a camera. I really think I'm being generous on the 80% also, but I didn't want to sound pessimistic.
After seeing that spider web, for the past three days I've been carrying my camera, but see rule one... Today I was sure I could find a picture like it, if not that web at that time, then something similar.
I left at 6:30, it was 60 degrees, and my windows were still covered with dew. I couldn't find a spider web anywhere. Why would that spider build the perfect web, and then leave it. Ok, I don't really know about the behavior of spiders. May be it's similar to police speed traps or something, and they have to keep changing locations.
Well I dillied quite a bit on the trail, and yes there was also a little bit of dallying, but nothing. I did find a few pictures that I liked, but not that one. I looked at my phone, because I don't wear a watch, and only had thirty minutes before I had to leave for work. It took 45 minutes to get where I was, but of course the dilly-dallying did slow me down some.
I started riding back as fast as I could, and then I saw it! A spider web right off the side of the trail, not the same one, but still. I hit my breaks hard, and nearly flew over the handlebars.
There wasn't any dew though, and the sun wasn't in the right position. I tried taking pictures from different angles, to get the sun right, but it still just looked like a spider web. It wasn't the magical thing that I found the other morning. That’s when I got the big idea...
I took a drink from my water bottle, and spit it all over the poor spider. Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about anything but that picture. That's when I remembered rule 1... You can't make a picture happen.
(click for a better view)
Posted by deminimis at July 16, 2004 06:54 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)