Today, February 2nd, is a very special day. First, the date is a palindrome--02/02/2020-it is the same backwards and forward.  Next, it is Ground Hog Day (Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, so get ready for an early Spring!).  Its also Super Bowl Sunday--Go....Who is playing?  And finally, it is the Christian feast of  Candlemas, the day, according to the New Testament, that Jesus was presented to the elders at the Temple and proclaimed the "light of the world." Candlemas is also the halfway date between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Solstice, so that means that in less than an hour as I write this, winter will officially be half over!!  Hurrah!!

   What does all this have to do with photography?  Lots. Predictions of an early Spring means that the flowers will soon be blooming and the trees budding and the earth will come back to life.  (It also means there will be more bugs than usual, but let's not dwell on that).  Most photographers love flowers and nature photography, so there will be lots to keep us busy.  The Super Bowl is the occasion of great football (sometimes yes, sometimes not), but always lots of action photos by photographers huddled on the sidelines with long lenses and dreams of killer shots.  Candlemas and winter being half over is also great news for photographers because the sun will be higher in the sky and there will be more light for photographs.  Thus unless you love winter photography, this means you need to get ready for nice weather to go out and explore the world with your camera.

  Perhaps the real point here is that everything circles back to photography. The day will pass, there will be a winner and a loser on the playing field, the flowers will come and go, but the sun will be higher and higher and the photographers will be around to record it all.