Live and Learn

Occasionally I will come across a photograph and I will wonder ``what was I thinking when I took that?" It happens more often than I like to admit and I find that it seems to have happened more in the ``film era'' than it does now in the ``digital age.'' I think the reason for that is the instant gratification the digital age offers us and the chance to just delete a bad shot when you take it.

I had the ``what was I thinking..." reaction when I saw this photo of trams I took in Vienna. It is from a scanned slide I made in March 2005, which as I have mentioned before was at the very end of my ``film era.''  The reason I had the reaction was the tree in the middle of the shot.

I know I was trying to get a photo of the trams passing side by side. I obviously thought enough about the shot to try to wedge my way in between all the trees to get a clean front-end shot of an oncoming tram. But I honestly don't get the rest of it. The lighting is bad and the background is a bit lackluster on top of everything else. The chances are good I just took the shot as I was walking somewhere else. I do that a lot. I see something, I take a quick shot, I get home and wished I had spent more time taking a better shot.