Golden Opportunities

“Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such” ~Henry Miller

For me, photography is a small series of golden opportunities.

I miss many of them. I can tell you of many instances when a moment presents itself and immediately vanishes - long before I can find my camera, much less get the setting right and snap a shot. Sometimes it's a sight seen from the car, too close to the road to capture a shot as we speed by - long passed before the thought fully registers. Other times, a bird lights quickly and perfectly in front of me but is gone before my hand can reach to adjust the lens.

Those are lost golden opportunities which will always remain as my mental snapshots. Below are just few that I didn't miss. Please remember to click on each image to enlarge it.

"Early morning hath gold in its mouth." ~Benjamin Franklin

Proof that not all of our squirrels in Ontario are black.

"Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble." ~Yiddish Proverb

A winter Goldfinch a few months before its body is as golden-yellow as its throat.

"Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness." ~Nicholas Boileau

Those giant burrs which Benny had on his back a couple of posts earlier.

"Night’s darkness is the bag that bursts with the gold of the dawn. ~Rabindranath Tagore

A couple of geese basking in the last of the golden sunlight.

“I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden.” ~ Helen Keller

A light snow covering helps to light the park path at night.

"Stories are like fairy gold, the more you give away, the more you have." ~Anonymous Snowman

A whimsical winter decoration adorned my neighbour's table top on New Year's Eve.

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." ~ Martin Luther

A bit of snow and nearby streetlamps help light up this tree. That blur in the foreground is Benny.

“And all is not golden that glitters, And not all that glitters is gold” ~Aloysius Charles Swinburne

Headlights, taillights and streetlights as seen through the back seat window on a rainy Christmas night.

"Water is best, but gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth." ~Pindar

On our way to Christmas dinner. The rain-soaked streets provided some vibrant reflections of the street lights.