BBC News has a weekly feature or photo challenge.  A recent one was called “Different Angle,” and it challenged readers, or photographers, to put a different perspective or spin on their images.  I am always amazed at some of the entries.  And this week I was struck by this wonderful image by Edward Diaz which he calls “Zippity Do Da.”  Diaz very cleverly created a zipper out of a pencil sharpener and his grandchildren’s colored pencils.  Indeed, when I looked at the thumbnail, I didn’t realize that it was anything more than a colorful zipper. So when I blew it up I took a double take.

Diaz relates the fact that it has been a long hard winter in the United States and one day he was playing with his camera and the pencils.  I can certainly relate both to the weather woes and the photograph.

I think that this points to the value of challenging yourself photographically with seeming mundane subjects.  Cold winter Sundays can be emotionally challenging.  At some point you start to feel like you’ve photographed way to much ice and snow.  It clearly testifies to the harshness of this past winter that it is May and we are still thinking and talking about it.