Road Work Warning Sign - Flip Side

This photo was taken on Monday March 9, 2015 at 5:23 AM

The location was close to Dupont Circle in Washington DC

The "Take It!" came from pulling up to an intersection which had the red light being shown to me to stop.  As you can see from the time the photo was taken - there was no one else on the road - so it was one of those - obey the mechanical organizer that has essential relevance later in the morning.  

Rather than go into the Grrrrr mode - I took a look around - and found this delightful splash of color to my left.  It was another moment to comprehend what I was looking at and match that up with the mental directive to retrieve my leisure camera from my seat belt covered, jacket pocket.  All of this takes some time - and no matter how many times I have repeated this set of steps, which has to include the unfastening of the seat belt, and the lifting of the Velcro fused flap on the camera pocket - it never is a quick set of maneuvers. I have learned through time - that I cannot fully rush this game - for if I do - invariably my hand or something slips and I have to repeat that part of the process which slows me down. Maybe I should look into getting a GoPro camera and have it mounted onto the baseball cap I constantly wear - lol.  But back to the moment. This was one of those rare times that I found myself being grateful that there was no one else at the intersection with me, especially behind me - so that when the signal changed to green, allowing me the opportunity to make my intersection move (completely solo), I instead - leisurely focused the camera and centered it on the back of this sign with its presumably aluminum, unpainted reflective surface serving as the canvas for the color capture from all of the many light sources now being enjoyed by thee and me. The colors came from: The crosswalk signal from the opposite side of the street as well as those traditional traffic signals with the red, yellow, green sequence. I think the sign is relatively new - thus has only a few dings in the metal. The dents provide distortion to the color streaks and add a wonderful degree of texture.

When the signal changed - there was a change in the colors - which I did not catch - but will see if all of this is still in place when I pass that way next time.  

When I finally made my way through the intersection, there were some other cars that had collected and were obeying the signal commands.  Here was a moment that I had a full conversion from dismay from having to stop, to joy in the pleasure of the discovery of the unexpected display of a section of rainbow color.

The After Take: This was a photo that was lots of fun to show on the monitor to an observer without giving any advance verbal presentation. Most had a quizzical look as their initial reaction for there is so much other distraction not central to the sign but none the less, does contribute to the identification of the setting.  I wasted no time in quickly stating that it was the color collection on the back of the sign that was the object of the photo. The facial expressions made an immediate change to comprehension and the sharing of the fun of the image.   

Thank you for taking time to join me in this happy discovery.

All the very best,

Bruce