This image almost didn't get made. Monica and I were on our way out of Farmington, New Mexico heading for Chaco Culture National Historical Park when I spotted these signs. My initial interest in taking this picture waned as I weighed the positives and negatives while driving 40 miles per hour down the highway. The visual appeal of the words was canceled out by the cloudless sky and backlighting. The final image would have the background as its brightest part and the eyes are usually drawn to brightness. The subject matter would be in shadow and the light would be flat. There was no good location to shoot the signs in sunlight. I was five miles down the road when I stopped arguing with myself and told Monica I was turning around. She's used to me doing unexpected things when I'm in photographer mode.
For me, there's a lot going on in this image. My goal was to get the subject matter of the signs and use the streetlights to create some additional visual interest. I was so into composing the shot to feature those items that I failed to notice one thing that really contributes to the message of the signs. There is only one bird on the foreground sign and it is intently watching all the birds on the other sign. Perhaps a better title for the picture would be "A Bird Named Jesus."
The learning I took from this experience is to "create more and think less."
