​While walking I am always looking for interesting photos opportunities. One of the things that make a photo interesting to me is how the light shines on a particular subject or object, and whether or not there is a story to be told or implied. As I looked at the blackberries I mostly saw the unripe ones and the ripe ones. And then it dawned on me that I could see more if I looked. So I did, and what I saw was several stages of the blackberry as it formed, then ripened, and then was gone. The only thing I could not catch in the photo at the time was the start of the process which was the flower. It wasn’t that there weren’t any flowering blackberries, but there were none that could be included in the same frame as all these other stages.

As I photographed the berries, a bird came along and nipped a berry off a nearby stalk. No, I couldn’t manage to get that in the frame either, though it would have been magical if I could have. But as the bird flew away it reminded me of the cycle of life. Growing, Glowing, and Gone.