Shutter to Think: Repeated Patterns

Last weekend I was at Sewards Park in Rock Falls for the Sauk Valley Water Ski show. I had another commitment in the afternoon, so time was tight regarding what action I could conjure up from the show. As it turned out, the main attraction, the Ski Broncs, were not going to be performing until well past the time I needed to “get along little doggy,” if you don’t mind me playing off the name of the ski group.

But I digress.

So here I am with a couple hours before I have to split. I’ve been in these situations before, so what I do is turn my attention to the people and families who are out and enjoying their time together.

My first image was a young lady and dad digging into an ice cream treat on what turned out to be just a lovely day. My next image was a little girl playing with the hundreds of rubber ducks that would soon be dropped in the drink of the Rock River then scooped out as a raffle for some lucky people. Because of some personal issues, the mom could not share her name but told me pictures were fine.

I admittedly started to get a bit disheartened and a little anxious as time was ticking away, and I didn’t yet feel I had told the story.

I sat on the riverbank and sulked a bit, as any mature person might, before finding my inner carpe diem and lifting myself off my butt and getting back to work.

I had no sooner turned around when I spotted this scene. Classic repeated pattern composition. I snapped off a few images as the girls chatted and texted and watched the crowds. I stepped up to the nice family and found out the girls were all cousins visiting their grandparents for the weekend. They were very nice and excited to be part of the local newspaper.

As I pulled out my notebook, ready to jot down the names of these five young ladies and readying myself for complicated spellings and requests that they repeat themselves, the most wonderful thing happened!

They all had the same last name.

The end.