Sometimes, the subject of your photo finds you, and sometimes you’ve got to find your subject.

I live in the great (flat) northern suburbs of Chicago.

My subdivision is full of lovely single family houses, not one on a street that runs in a straight line for more than 30 yards. There are at best, 6 different floor plans available. In our not-so-quiet little cul-de-sac of 10 houses, at least three of our neighbors could find their way around our house in the dark, as we could in theirs.

[EDITOR’S NOTE:* To be clear, I do not wander through my neighbors’ homes in the dark. To the best of my knowledge, nor do they in ours.]

There’s a Meijer’s up the road. We have a Kohl’s. All the fast food franchises you could need. A public golf course and a public pool. There is a library (quite nice really, but not helpful to this point) and several schools. What is missing is any sort of clear attraction for a guy with a camera on his shoulder.

Of course, I know this is wildly unfair. I imagine my town mayor (board of trustees? Panel of judges? Gaggle of geese? I have no idea) bristling at my words. “What about downtown? And all the beautiful, historical Victorian homes? The parks? The woodlands?”

Of course, they’re right. My camera goes in my bike bag every time I go out, and more than once I’ve almost gone over the handlebars braking hard because something caught my eye. Plus, I have a few recent ideas brewing that would make our mysterious town leaders proud as punch.

I still take pictures of my most willing subjects, when they sit still long enough…cats, dogs, and babies. That will never run its course. Meanwhile, I’ve made a conscious decision to open my eyes more often to what is around me. Notice more. It’s easier on a bicycle, even more so on foot…which makes the suburban need to hole up in a car all the time even more frustrating.

Tomorrow is the first weekend of the rest of my life. I have few things up my sleeve. Let’s see what sort of trouble I can start before we all go back to work, yes?

*FINALLY. I am an editor.