Missed Opportunity

It's April 23rd, and the perfect day to go on assignment. I packed my backpack full of all the essentials that I would need on my drive (Nikon D40 DSLR, Canon RebelG SLR, Fuji Instax 210 Wide, extra film, and a banana). I checked my map printout from Google.Maps just before leaving so that I had freshly in my mind the exact areas I wanted to go and shoot; even ones to revisit. Although at this point, as prepared as I felt, it wouldn't have been enough to keep me from missing certain opportunities.

My first stop was to check out a few roadside memorials on the Wantagh State Parkway, southbound side, just south of where it crosses with the Southern State Parkway. For awhile I was very apprehensive about stopping on the side of the parkway to shoot the memorials. But this time I mustered up the gaul to do it.  While driving down the parkway at 11:30 this morning, I though I was driving slow enough that if the memorial was close, I'd be able to stop, roll down the window and shoot. However, I didn't anticipate to be coming up as soon as it did, and missed one of the memorials I wanted to capture. I was kicking myself on the inside. It was one of the better ones that I wanted to shoot, too. I had it all planned out in my journal, and in my head.

Eventually I did stop and shoot from the driver's side, without getting out from the car. I didn't immediately go back onto the Wantagh State Parkway. But rather, I went around to other memorials in the area, tried a few different vantages (one from across the road in the parking lot of a bank), then went back onto the parkway. However, now that I think back to the time, I think I was in the wrong position on the grass where I was shooting. Looking over my contact sheets, I realize if I had just moved up a bit further, it would have made all the difference. I'm certainly going to try it again.