I was walking to the local store the other day. It was cold, wet and overcast and I felt pretty miserable I can tell you. I was on a mission to buy something from the store and to get home as quickly as possible. Nothing else was on my mind.

Then, I passed a construction site. There was a flurry of activity – diggers and cranes on the move. Nothing special and I didn’t take too much notice. But, then I caught sight of a couple of workmen – they were wearing bright yellow jackets and red hard hats – moving some rubble by hand. They looked cold, wet and engrossed in their work. The backdrop to all this was a large and partially constructed building.

I was impressed by the colours of the workmen’s attire and the contrast with the damp weather and the greyness of the partly built structure. It would have made an interesting photograph. It would only have taken me a few seconds to capture it and the light was reasonably good so I would not have needed either a tripod or flashgun.

But, I didn’t have my camera with me and I lost the shot.

I have a number of cameras, one of which is a Canon A60 – a camera that is small and fits neatly into my pocket. I remember telling someone that they should always carry a camera, even on short errands. I failed to do so and lost an opportunity.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

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