The World Is A Book…

Travelers spend a lot of time waiting. Friends of mine texted me the other day that they had waited 9 hours at the airport for the next flight; that is one third of the day. The longest flight hubby and I experienced was to Thailand. It was about 24 hours, including changing flights. After the long flight, I was happy to see the beautiful landscape of Bangkok from the airplane window.

The flight to Tokyo was a few hours shorter than to Bangkok. No matter how long or short the flight, the thrill of knowing the plane is about to land is the same.

Quora shows an average adult spends at least 5 hours per day or 35 of 168 hours per week waiting, meaning approximately one fifth of one’s time is lost in that way. I can’t imagine we spend this much time waiting. Then again, most photographers probably spend more time waiting than actually photographing.

I remember one of my birding trips was just a couple of hours of driving to the coastal area, but we were up at around 5 am the next day for the day long birding trip. The birding boat took off at 6 am. At the end of the day, I got only a few good shots. Oh well, there is always next time.

Here is an image that I named “dancing into love”. I borrowed the title of a poem written by one of my blog friends (I often think of her beautiful poems. I haven’t seen her in the blogosphere for a while). Though I didn’t capture the details of these two egrets, I was happy to capture the gracefulness as they were dancing:

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

–Eden Phillpotts

We were at this spot at around 1 pm and we waited and waited… at around 3:30 pm these birds finally decided to take off. Two professional wildlife photographers fired up with their 600 mm lenses. My humble Canon and 300 mm lens did its best. 🙂

Birdwatchers are willing to wait. It can be a day-long or week-long wait at temperatures of 30F degrees in the morning, and yet birders would patiently come back again and again. The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson, was hilarious, and you get to understand birders’ obsessions.

— Earl Nightingale

This is one of those shots. I didn’t wait for a minute. As soon as I saw the nun walking toward the fence from a distance, I had already anticipated the scene, and I knew I wanted the shot. I ran across the street. luckily, I got it.

This week, we invite you to explore waiting. Share with us photos and stories of your or other people’s waiting experience–waiting for holidays, vacation, travels, or a photographic moment.

Due to my travel schedule, after mid next week, I will be late visiting your responses to this theme and replying to your comments.

Thank you for participating in the layered theme that I hosted in October. Your photos and stories were not only beautiful, but also inspiring. Via your lens, we got to enjoy these amazing layered captures from around the world!

In your post, include a link to my original post since Links from the Reader are not working correctly. For your convenience, here is the link : https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2019/11/16/waiting-2/

We are encouraged that more and more followers are using tags each week. If it’s new to you, take a look: Why Tag and Tag Instructions.

Thanks to Ann-Christine for her creative, exciting, and fun creepy theme last week, and her photos and stories have inspired all of us. Responses were so cool! Have you seen these:

Jezbraithwaite’s photos and stories are creepy.

You don’t want to miss Anjum’s discovering creepiness.

Mama Cormier shows creepy photos taken in the zoo,cemetery…

Take a look of Priscilla’s UFO!

Oh, if you want to know how to add ghosts to photos, go see Sue (Mac’s Girl)!

As always, Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine and I are looking forward to seeing your interpretation.

Stay tuned for Tina’s (Travels and Trifles) LAPC #73 on November 23rd.