The snow and ice are melting really quick, and they are revealing all kind of scenes. I stumbled upon this one during my morning walk yesterday: an American flag that had been underwater for a while.

I knew there was an image there, so I turned on my compact camera and started to look for the right angle. After just a few seconds, it died. "Battery exhausted". I couldn't believe it.

I knew it was about to die when I left home, and made the terrible mistake of not bringing an extra battery. So I did the only thing I could do: I pull out my iPhone 7 and took a shot.

I immediately loved the result and I wanted to capture it again with a better camera. So I went home, grabbed a new battery, and soon enough I was back at the scene. It had taken me half an hour, but it was too late. Everything that made the image work earlier was just not there anymore: the Sun was higher in the sky and the reflections on the water looked bad; also the wind had picked up creating small waves.

It goes to show that camera gear does matter, but nothing will ever beat good timing: being at the right place, at the right moment.