Well, that's what I felt I needed when I took this picture of a dome in Charlottesville. Every time I have tried to take a picture of a round, circular object, I get home only to find a squashed, elliptical image, or part of the circle missing. This one is almost miraculous then. I cropped it into a perfect square and was left with a perfect circle. How many times does that ever happen? How many times does that ever happen when I set out intentionally to make it happen? Pretty much never, but there you see the evidence. Total control (for a second or two) might be possible. The word of the day is "panic," which might be the opposite of control, but I imagine it's a bit more because not only are you not in control, but there might be another force, a dangerous force, at work. I guess I'm pretty sanguine in that regard. I am subject to anxiety and worry, maybe even of a fill-in-the-blank nature. By that I mean, if there is nothing to be anxious about, my being will cast around until it can fill in the blank with something. Yeah, well, you live with who you are, no other choice. But panic? I don't, as a rule. I do remember a moment on the streets of Baltimore. I was carrying a bag of song-books, on my way home from a friend's house. She hosted singing sessions, but I was going to host one and had gone to her house to fetch the song-books. It was broad daylight. The books were in a plastic grocery bag. A man walking towards me quite unexpectedly grabbed for the bag. I tried to speak: "they're just books," but the words would not emerge from my throat. It was as though all the liquid and all the muscles in my throat had dried up and petrified. No sound would emerge, not even a croak. The bag, being of light-weight plastic, broke and the books scattered onto the sidewalk. The thief took off. I picked up the books and walked home, quite shaken, not so much by the fact that someone had tried and failed to take a bag of song books, but by the fact that in the heat of the moment I had been so overwhelmed by fear and panic that I could not speak.
Quite a story! Re: the picture -- you knocked it out of the park with this one. You must have either laid down flat or bent over backwards to a perfect 90 degree angle. Either way, not easy to accomplish. Kudos and FAV.
This is a great shot. I like it a great deal. Panic and reaction to it are unique to everyone and in each situation. The fact that you picked yourself up and went on should be commended.
so fine, looks intricate and yet we know that it's a big opening - and the story you told about the bag of books - contrasts with the peacefulness of the blue sky -
Great shot! I don't know how I would have reacted in that situation, but I don't think you did anything unusual in not being able to find your voice. And I agree with "Walks"- the fact that you picked up the books and continued on is what should be remembered. That was brave.
And, congrats on getting today's March word into your fabulous narrative.