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I stumbled on Triond by accident just a short time ago.

I like to write and it also seemed like a good opportunity to make a little extra money.

At first I did not realize that pictures and videos were also accepted on Triond. When I saw that several people had published many articles, I checked and realized they were photographs.

Basically it has opened up a whole new world for me. I’ve run thousands of kilometers over the past 30 years and never once took a camera along. Now I take a camera everywhere.

I think back to the many pictures I could have taken over the years had I had a camera with me. Like the time I was on an early morning winter run and saw a deer several hundred meters away. He was standing just off the trail I was running on. I kept waiting for him to run off into the nearby woods. But he stood there, staring at me as I approached closer and closer. I couldn’t believe it. I ran right past him. I was so close I could have reached out and touched him. Yet he kept watching me as if he was mesmerized. I’ve never seen such big, clear eyes. What a great picture it would have been. Just a few feet away from a wild deer and no camera.

Moments in time only go by once. That is the beauty of photography. It will capture that moment. The secret is to be in the right place at the right time.

SOME AMAZING PICTURES:

When the war photographer took the picture of the G.I.s raising the U.S. flag in Iwo Jima, little did he know the impact it would have on an entire country. It became a focal point for a population that needed a lift. It made instant national heroes of the photographer and the soldiers involved. It also became the greatest and best known war photograph of all time.

One day a man with a camera in his car was driving on a lonely country road.

Unbelievably, when the driver rounded a curve he came upon two steers in the exact middle of the road. The road stretched off into the horizon and was bordered by acres and acres of farm land. There was not another person or animal to be seen. Except for the two steers. They were in the center of the road. They had there heads butted up against each other and were staring each other in the eyes. Neither one would give way. The man had captured this picture. It won the grand prize in a photography contest. Hardly a surprise.

Another photographer took a picture of a steam locomotive slowly leaving a station. It was full of action. A young boy was running beside the train waving at the engineer who was waving back. A great cloud of thick smoke came from the trains smokestack. Overhead, dark storm clouds were gathering. In itself it was a pretty good picture. But then something else happened just as the camera clicked. A bolt of lightning chose that moment to shoot out of the clouds. When the picture was developed, it appeared in an optical illusion that the bolt of lightning had hit the smokestack. What are the odds? This picture also won first place in a photography contest.

TRIOND AND PHOTOGRAPHY:

When I look at pictures Triond members have submitted I see more than roses, ducks, landscapes and floods. I see people sharing their lives. Sharing the things that are important to them. Much as I submit pictures of the winter landscape I get to enjoy on my early morning runs. Even though I know these pictures are unlikely to be big money earners, there is still satisfaction in sharing what I see and experience with others. Who knows. Maybe there is someone in a desert county who has never felt a snowflake melt against his face. Maybe he has never seen or smelled the pine needles of an evergreen tree.

THAT ONE SPECIAL PICTURE:

I plan to take my camera everywhere I go. Now when I run I pay more attention to the marvels that often passed by unnoticed. My runs have taken on new meaning after all these years. And who knows. Any one of us could one day be in the right place at the right time and take that one special picture that is seen all over the world wide web. A picture that could also earn some extra income.

So I hope everyone keeps on taking pictures and keeps on sharing them with the rest of us.

I know it has brought new enjoyment into my life and I have Triond to thank for that.