All the good images are there for the taking; you can pluck them by the handful from the flowering image tree. The problem is that the flowering image tree only comes into bloom when normal people are asleep, which means that if you want any of those good images for yourself, you have to wake up early or stay out late.
Some mornings, when I’ve set my alarm at a ludicrous time, I wake up and my wife says: “Oh God, are you going out to the flowering image tree again?” And I turn off the alarm and fall back to sleep. An hour later, I get up and realize what I’ve done. It feels good to get an adequate night’s sleep. But when another night has passed and still I’ve missed the flowering image tree, I start to engage in all kinds of negative self talk. I call myself a lazy bastard. You’ll never get any decent photos, I say to myself, because you’d rather sleep all the time. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, you lazy bastard!
So it strikes me as a minor miracle that I manage to pluck much of anything at all off that flowering image tree. I picked this image on July 1st, 2016 at 5:35 am. Even today, when I look at the image, I can’t believe I really got up that early. What is wrong with me?
As an aside, I prefer shooting in the winter because sunrise arrives so much later. I can get a full night’s sleep, throw on my coat and boots, and still make it in time to catch the flowering image tree in bloom.
