Bad. So Bad.

I made so many bad photos to get to My Final Photo.

I knew the tree lot was going to close today and planned to get there early enough to get a good cleanup photo. I’d been told by the lot supervisor that today was going to be the last day it was open. It wasn’t.

Yesterday was the last day it was open.

Today it was closed, and cleanup began early in the morning. When I arrived all that was going on was tying down palettes and tools for transport back to their storage containers. All the trees were gone. All the containers, racks, tools, and accessories were in trucks ready to leave.

I worked very hard trying to get a storytelling photo of workers climbing around in the back of the truck, tossing twine across the bed of the truck, climbing on the rear tire to get high enough to tie off boards, jiggling palettes to settle them before tying, and double and triple looping knots.

The photo at the top is the best I got. And it isn’t very good. Tried foreground objects. Foreground objects as framing devices. Low angle to remove the horizon as a distracting element.

I was slightly frantic using every tool and technique I knew to get a good photo. Then it was over.

The man in the truck bed came down and headed to his already loaded truck to leave to tow the portable light system back to the rental company.

I wished him a Merry Christmas and turned to the other driver to offer him the same holiday wish when he told me he wasn’t going to leave yet. He still had to sweep the lot clean.

My blood pressure and stress level returned to normal knowing that somewhere in that action was My Final Photo for December 22, 2023.