NEAR PERFECT PICTURE

(AUGUST 7, 2010) Yesterday I took over 400 photographs while on the river. Some of them were shown, in part, in the photo selected for yesterday's entry, EYES on the Riverwalk. However, one shot was especially nice with near perfect lighting and near perfect colors. The crispness of the red damselfly image makes for a very pleasant photograph.

Sadie and I did get to the Riverwalk this morning, starting at Angler's Park and walking toward Dan Daniel Park. I didn't take my camera since it was later in the morning, and I knew that if I took my camera we would likely be an hour or more longer, and the sun was beginning to already heat the air.

While on the trail, I kept thinking of this one photograph I took yesterday. The photo required little cropping and absolutely no manipulation with Photo Shop (light and color were near perfect). I decided that I would write about that photo today.

I have 1000s of photos of damselflies taken over the past two years (most of them have been taken this summer). There are photos of blue one, red ones, yellow ones, brown ones and green ones. I've heard there are some purple ones, too, but I've never seen one of those. Yesterday's beauty was a red one (more of a maroon one as the photograph depicts the insect's true colors).

As Sadie walks near the brush growing up along the river, she often disperses a number of damselflies into the air as they fly away from her nearness. She will still point at them if they attract her attention, but she is more interested in the smaller butterflies. This one damselfly was perched above her reaches while she was pointing at a small butterfly. I snapped away at the damselfly, taking about a dozen shots of it. All of the shots were identical - all near perfect.

It is rare that I take a "near perfect" picture. There is some focusing error or something wrong with the lighting. However, I DO take sometimes as many as 600 pictures a day on the Riverwalk.

I told someone, once, that by "taking 300-600 photographs each day, there are bound to be three or four that are pretty good." The person responded, "Even if a blind person were given the camera, he could get a few good shots out of that many photographs." It's always nice to have someone around to keep me humble.

It was another good day, not as "near perfect" as the photograph, but a good day on the Riverwalk.