On Guard

With a love for photography, comes an eagerness to explore new places and seek unique natural settings. The experience is often quiet and tranquil with a peacefulness in the air. I have also realized that exploration can come at a price. Being in these quiet and tranquil places can unfortunately leave you vulnerable as well. And this is why I call this blip, "On Guard".

Today my husband and I had a meeting downtown. Afterwards, I decided to go out and shoot a few shots while my husband made a couple of last minute phone calls. The river is only a few dozen feet from the closest residents and there were people out and about on this very chilly morning. An older man walking his poodle noticed my camera and gave me a head's up about a hawk that was sitting high above the world on a telephone pole. I thanked him but decided to first check out the shoreline just a couple of feet away.

I didn't find my "it" shot but I did stumble upon a purse. It was really trendy and cute, zipped closed, and soaking wet. I didn't know if it floated in from the river or had been sitting out for days in the rain. Not really knowing what to do but thinking that I should do something, I slowly unzipped it and saw a University student body card sitting on top belonging to a college aged girl. The purse appeared to be full of various belongings and it instantly gave me the sinking feeling that something just wasn't right. So I picked it up, cancelled my little photo shoot and took it back to the coffee shop to show my husband. He agreed that we should contact the security department in the area so we turned it in and ended up having to leave all of our information in the case of a further police investigation. The security police officer told us that they had been dealing with crime along the shoreline lately and that the purse would be handed over to the Police.

I wish that the world wasn't like this. It seemed pretty obvious to the officer that this purse had been stolen and that their next goal would be locating the owner. Knowing that it belonged to a young girl just left me with a feeling of uneasiness. How did her purse end up on the shore along the river? How long had it been there? Where was she? Hopefully, there will be a logical explanation. We figure that if we don't get a follow-up call from the police, then they more than likely located her and she was able to retrieve her items. This is what we are hoping for.

As I took my husband back to the spot to show him where I had found it, I realized that it is really not that safe to just go out with your camera and explore. I was only a few feet away from the hubbub of civilization but was still far enough away to be out of sight if trouble occurred. It frustrates me that everyone has to have their constant guard up these days. It almost seems as if it is getting worse as the years press on. Where did the days go when you could be on your bike all day long as a kid and only have to check in for lunch? Gone. Gone for good.

As we were leaving the coffee shop today, I spotted this lion guarding the front door. I instantly thought, how perfect considering what we were dealing with at the moment. A ferocious lion guarding his domain.......constantly keeping his guard up.