Recently I was in Bangkok to do some teaching, and had an afternoon free. Wanting to see more of the city, I signed up for a river and canal tour. Thailand has lots of water, and Bangkok is laced with canals. It was a good tour and I made some nice photos. But one photo I really liked when I shot it doesn't work, because I forgot to think about what I was doing.

The most interesting part of the day was when we floated through some of the neighborhoods. Think parts of your city with single-family homes, only instead of streets there's just water. The homes are all built above the water, and people's front steps lead into the water. They come and go by boat.

As we're boating through there, we passed a home with a St. Bernard standing on the steps. I laughed as I picked up the camera and shot the photo. After all, a St. Bernard in the middle of Thailand is unusual enough, but standing there just a few feet above the water made it much better. Only problem was, I was so intent on the dog, I forgot to include the water. It's funny if I explain it, but photos should stand on their own merit. If you have to explain them, that's usually a bad sign.

So the photo didn't work, but that's okay. After all, I always tell people that I tend to learn best from my mistakes. Next time I'll get it right. I hope!