civilized ku # 2693 ~ you just never know

St. Dominic ~ New Haven, Connecticut • click to embiggenLess than 7 days after my return from a short over night getaway I find myself in Toronto, Canada for a 3 day trip - my and Hugo's annual Spring Break All Guys getaway.

Like all of my trips, I never leave having a single thought about making pictures other than knowing I will be making some pictures. Most often, upon my return, I am very surprise at the number, usually substantial, of pictures I have made. Of course, my camera(s) are always at hand and, even more important, I just can not turn off my eyes and vision. I just never know what it is which might trigger my trigger finger. Like, say, my recent trip to New Haven, Connecticut ...

... who would thought / known that I would encounter a Roman Catholic saint, St. Dominic, about whom the story is told that before his birth his barren mother made a pilgrimage to Silos and dreamed that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth, and "seemed to set the earth on fire".

Seriously, who could resist a picture making opportunity with that knowledge in mind? Although, I didn't gain that knowledge until after the picture making fact. However, that written, I knew there had to something unusual about the dog with a burning torch in its mouth sitting at the foot of a saint.

And the story gets even better when I discovered that this story is likely to have emerged when his order became known, after his name, as the Dominican order. Dominicanus in Latin and a play on words interpreted as Domini canis, "Dog of the Lord." is truly ... ahh ... unique.

So, IMO, it is better to be prepared to picture what you see rather than to plan in advance to make pictures of what you have been told are good picture making referents.