Like Paved Paradise Blues

"You pave paradise, put up a parking lot." - Joni Mitchell from the song Big Yellow Taxi

It was approximately 20 minutes before sunrise when my eyes adjusted to the blue light of dawn.  There within the uneven edges of crumbling pavement I gazed into a grimy puddle and searched for an answer. Is there a photo here, or am I overreaching?  It's in this reflection that I notice the billowing clouds in large painterly strokes with slivers of contrasty daylight. A large tree looms in the still air interrupted only by the chatter of Starlings and the click of my shutter. Several miles of nature trail stretches ahead of me, but I'm here in the parking lot about 20 fee from my car photographing this scene with the same diligence as I would a sprawling waterfall. 

There will be other mornings with cheerful scenes and colorful flowers.  Those are easy to photography, and look great hanging on a wall.  Yet, the truth is, nature like life, is rarely so picture perfect, and the shadows need to be explored as well.  Sometimes it takes the camera and lens to understand what we are really looking at.  

Comments

[ernest]

Chris, I have always wondered why in a photo the reflection of the sky in the water is darker than the actual sky above. Do you know the answer. Thanks

[Chris]

I can only answer for this specific instance as there was a shadow on the ground caused by a man made element in the parking lot.