She had put off the photography assignment for as long as she could. Photographing flowers just wasn’t her thing. She loved unexpected angles and situations, not just flowers.

She went to a nearby urban trail hoping to find something unusual to inspire her. She loved the class, but this particular assignment just felt so…ordinary.

For the record, she didn’t ever stop by any still life paintings either. Abstract was definitely more her jam.

As she got out of the car, the parking lot was pretty empty. She grabbed her camera, her bottle of water and set out in search of an acceptable subject. As the sun rose higher in the sky she started to get frustrated. She was losing the light quality that she wanted and still hadn’t found a flower that wasn’t a dandelion.

She came around the corner and saw a shimmer of water. Oh–the pond. She had completely forgotten about that. It seemed likely to find more flowers growing near there.

The trail wrapped around the outside of the pond. She headed towards the left side of the loop, scanning the ground for some flowers. Close to the next turn she saw some flashes of yellow among the grass. They were just a little bit past their peak, but she smiled. That added a little interest.

She got on the ground and started shooting from a prone position. She was so fixated on getting the right angle that she didn’t hear him on the trail until he spoke.

“You really get into your photography,” he laughed.

Startled, she turned over on her back. She could barely see him with the sun behind his head. She scurried to a seat. “Photography class assignment. Flowers,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Dr. Lewis?” he asked.

“Yes–are you in the class?”

He nodded. “Not exactly my favorite assignment either. I was hoping for more edgy stuff. “

“Me too!” She got to her feet. “I’m Karyn. Why do you think I was on the ground? I needed to do something to jazz up this assignment.”

He pulled out his camera and showed her his latest shots. “Dead flowers. Great minds. I’m Tim,” he laughed again.

She showed him her shots from the ground. “I was trying to make them look gigantic,” she giggled. “Are you done? I’m dying for food.”

He grinned. “Looks like our dislike of flower pictures might be a great bonding experience. Let’s go.”