As everyone knows, this past weekend we went into Daylight Savings Time…a sure sign that spring is on its way. I decided to celebrate by heading out early Sunday morning to capture a gorgeous sunrise which was not scheduled to occur until 7:18 am with the time change. Yes, it was still 6:18 to my internal clock, but I chose to ignore that fact and jumped out of bed at 6:30 (new time), quickly dressed, had my coffee and grabbed my camera. I was going to find myself a sunrise! But…
…there was no sun to be found. Perhaps I should have looked out through the closed blinds before I bounded out the door and backed out of the garage. The sky was a heavy steel gray and snowflakes were just beginning to fall.
What to do? Well, I was already up. I was already out. I decided to power forward and see what I could find that would be interesting and/or beautiful. So I started driving.
And found myself driving past the Ballston Center Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Charlton. I didn’t intend to be there, I was aimlessly driving around, but I suddenly looked up and noticed how incredibly beautiful the new bell tower looked in the early morning light with the snow gently coming down. I had found my beautiful spot!
As many know, the bell tower was destroyed by fire in 2013 due to a lightning strike, with reconstruction completed in July 2014. It is simple and it is beautiful. I pulled into the empty parking lot and pulled out my camera…only to find that I had only brought the zoom lens with me. Not a problem. Rather than capturing the entire church, I focused solely on the beauty of the bell tower. And I was so glad I did! The lines and angles were beautiful, the lighting was soft and the falling snow added magic.
I am all about “moments.” It’s why my blog is named what it is. I fully believe in being constantly aware of my moments and not letting them slide past without my attention. Standing out in the pre-dawn snow taking photos of this stunning bell tower definitely qualified as a moment. I am so glad I did not miss it.
I needed to be at the City Center by 10:00 a.m. to work at the Health and Fitness Expo, so I had time to kill. I decided to take my time driving back to Saratoga and continue to enjoy the morning.
When I lived in Burnt Hills, I loved running on the bike path over by Carney’s. I stopped in the parking lot at the far end of the bike path and got out to walk around. It was pretty gray and snowing more heavily by this point, but it was wonderfully silent. I took a couple of quick shots before moving on.
Finally, I returned to Saratoga, however, I continued to aimlessly drive around enjoying my morning (after a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts for more coffee…I was kind of tired). Just before heading home, I came across this pretty farm. I stopped the car in the middle of the road, unrolled my window, and grabbed a few photos from the car.
So, my morning did not go as planned, I didn’t catch a sunrise, but what I found instead was wonderful and so much better!
