A small gift to you

If you had been here at precisely 5:00 pm today you would have seen this

 When I rounded the corner and saw this I thought it was on fire.  This photo does not do it justice.

We are lucky here. The setting sun graces the barn, the pond, and the trees across the pond, such that several times a year I am struck awed by not only how beautiful it is, but by how short lived these moments are. This one lasted all of 90 seconds, only long enough to pull the phone out of my pocket and dash off half a dozen pics before the light quality changed just enough to go from jaw dropping to meh.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was famous for "The Decisive Moment" in photography, that one instant where all the elements in the frame are in the perfect spot. He was great at anticipating the decisive moment and capturing it on film. If you spend as much time as Bresson taking pictures you put yourself in position to see many hundreds of decisive moments every day, and sometimes you get to capture some on film (or iPhone). But for most of us the decisive moment is pure dumb luck, as this was for me (yes, I know that technically this is NOT a decisive moment in the strict Cartier-Bresson tradition). 5:00 is quitting time and I was leaving. A thousand things could have delayed me 90 seconds and who knows how many of these I've missed over the years.

People that came at 4:49 did not see it. If they came a minute after 5 they missed it too. It turns out I was the only one here. I wish you all could have joined me. This is the next best thing..