Thanks, everyone, for your time and words.

Sure, I knew the risk of taking pictures of such a common subject (I've commented on some in this forum too ). But this sky was so gorgeous and when I saw the alignment, I instantly thought it would say many different things to different people. Generally, I like to be more blatant in the messages that my photos communicate but I wanted to try a different approach with this shot.

While I did want a little more flag color to show, I didn't want it to be confused as a black-and-white to the casual observer. Therefore, I eliminated all other elements so as not to bring in color that would compete with the flag.

My immediate impression of this scene when I shot it was how symbolic it appeared regarding the current state of the country (take that anyway you want).

BTW, when I first showed my wife, she told me that the shot was "boring"