Happy Sunday! This week, Patti is the host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #269 and she has chosen a topic that’s quite challenging (at least to me) and that is on the edge.

Maybe it’s me but I find most water sports or activities to be dangerous. I shot this picture in Kawaguchiko, a resort town near the foot of Mt. Fuji. I was sitting at the counter on the second floor of a cafeteria-style restaurant, looking out to the lake. There were quite a few boats on the lake that day but my attention was on this one.

I watched as the boat began to move, the person in the black wet suit trailing slightly behind. All the while, those boys remain seated at the edge of the boat. How could they sit there like that? I wondered. Aren’t they afraid of falling into the water?

Not long after, I saw it, the person in the wet suit lost balance and fell. Instantaneously, I stood up and said, “Oh my gosh!” Maybe a little too loud because the man sitting next to me stared at me like I was crazy. Thankfully, the person was okay.

Though I have many fears, I live life on the edge at times. As much I hate heights, I decided to ride the Tempozan Ferris Wheel in Osaka, Japan. This is one of the largest Ferris Wheels in the world with a diameter of 100 meters.

Throughout the ride, I sat as close as the side as I could, capturing the views outside with my super-zoom 18-400 mm lens, while my mom sat opposite of me, legs shaking with fear. She has a harder time dealing with heights than I do sometimes. Anyway, I had to half-stand to capture this picture and as I stood, crouching, framing the picture, mom shrieked, “sat down!” Fine, fine, I thought as I clicked the shutter button on my camera.

Finally, it’s quite difficult to take a photo when one is not given a proper size window. I shot this photo from inside Himeji Castle. Because the castle was built to defend the city, all the windows were either grids or had two steel wires running through the middle of it. I liked the grids more than the other kind. At least with the grid window, I could stick the camera lens partially out the window but to get a good angle, I had to position myself near the edge of the window frame.

I think it came out pretty good.