Luck

The Space Shuttle Endeavour comes to LA. On holiday from the UK with my best friend, it was the last few days for us after an incredible 3 week road trip around California, Nevada and Arizona. We had no idea that Endeavour was retiring to LA until we saw it announced on the morning news a couple of days before.

Shot from Griffith Observatory, I consider this lucky by being in the right place at the right time, getting to the observatory was also a challenge, the roads nearby were gridlocked, we found a space on Western Canyon Road and I hiked up to the observatory in the crazy heat along a rough trail past the signs warning of mountain lions and rattlesnakes, I didn't see any thankfully. The atmosphere there with all the people was incredible, I feel lucky to have been there to experience that.

There are much better images of this event done by others, at the time it was before I was really into photography, I had borrowed a Nikon bridge camera from my parents, it is technically a snapshot, my skills at the time were pointing the camera at the subject and pressing the shutter button in auto mode. Although I planned to get this composition, knowing that the observatory would be a good vantage point. This and other shots taken around this time however did inspire me to take photography more seriously putting me on the road to improving my craft and learning new skills with the hope of getting better images when presented with these unique situations.