A Not So Perfect Picture - My Family Travels

A Not So Perfect Picture

Article By: MFT, Quarter Finalist

Bok Tower

Whenever I went to a party, my camera would be in my hands, capturing the moments that I longed to never forget. Even as a little girl, I had a training camera. Finally, at the age of fifteen I took a trip solely for the purpose of exercising the skill I had been building since that early age, a trip that would allow me to capture the beauty of the natural world that I rarely witnessed in the land of suburbia. Although, I doubt if a garden can be considered all that “natural.”

Yes one weekend morning, my father and I set off for the famous Bok Tower Gardens. This garden isn’t what I would typically consider a garden though, amongst the beautifully pruned shrubs and flowers are wild sand hill scrubs, and nightmarish passages. As I passed from section to section of the grounds, I continued to take shot after shot of each shrub, squirrel, and view that I came across. My camera was whirling from position to position, up down, sideways, above, and below in order to capture every angle of the day. The most beautiful view of all was that which the grounds were named after, the Bok Tower. Not only does the tower provide a shelter for the Carillon, whose bells ring out over the grounds, the tower itself displays a certain beauty with the tiles that decorate the two-hundred and five feet tower.

I took my eyes off of the impressively ornate tower and focused below. There, swimming absolutely gracefully in the water, were white swans. I noticed a feeder at the edge of the pond and automatically wished for money to get a chance to get even closer to the beautiful creatures. After rummaging through my father’s pockets, I had enough change to dispense the food and was able to feed the birds from the palm of my hand (and naturally, of course, I HAD to get a picture with them)! I loved the wildlife that covered the grounds…or so I thought.

As soon as we left the swans, we started down a path outlined by numerous trees. At the end of the pond, I stopped to take more pictures of the tower which looked absolutely beautiful, especially from this angle. Turning my focus from the spectacular view, I started to go down the path in front of me and suddenly I noticed that spider after spider covered the trail. Filled with trepidation, I looked up. What I saw was definitely nightmarish. Above the entire trail and towards the tops of the trees were enormous webs, spanning the width of the path, tens of spiders had spun their webs and perched their feet above the innocent path-walkers’ heads. I stared up at the massive giants, some as long as my thumb, wanting to retrace my steps and avoid this passage at all costs. Thankfully, I was able to carefully back my way out of what I now refer to as Aragog’s (the spider form Harry Potter) Hallow, without any incidents. However, despite the surprise encounter, this trip was one of the most memorable I have ever taken. I was able to capture my pictures while experiencing an adventure, all-in-all it was an exciting trip.

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