When we go on vacation, we're all quite good at noticing beauty. We take pictures of mountains and valleys, buildings and beaches, sunrises and sunsets.When we're at home, driving the same roads, seeing the same things, we are more apt to overlook beauty.That's what I like about "Burning Daylight: Views from the Park Lane," a new book from local photographer Bill Yates.Yates is perhaps best known for shooting spectacular images from helicopters. He recently photographed the entire St. Johns River, capturing the 310 miles in digital stills and 360-degree panoramas. But this book is a collection of photos taken entirely from one stationary vantage point - his living room window."You don't have to travel far and wide to shoot a good photograph," Yates said. "It's in your backyard. It's in your home. It's in your environment."Granted, his living room window, on the fifth floor of the Park Lane condos in Riverside, looks out at the St. Johns River. So, yes, it's easy to say he's starting with a beautiful view. But as Yates shows with his book, that's only part of it.It is beautiful views, plural.While every photo in the book is shot from this one spot, every photo is different. As the light and clouds and water change, so does the view. It's bold splashes of orange and red. And it's almost black and white. It's still and peaceful. And it's active and ominous. It's yellow, purple and in perhaps my favorite image, almost entirely deep blue. Blue water, blue clouds, a sliver of light sky poking through."It will change minute by minute," Yates said, standing by the window Monday afternoon. "There are moments in time when that's it, if you don't get it, you've lost it."And that was part of the beauty of shooting this. There always was another minute, another day.Yates, 62, and his family moved to the Park Lane about three years ago. Even though the place has emotional ties for him - his grandfather lived there in the 1940s and he grew up playing in Memorial Park - he wasn't sure about condo living. But the window quickly changed that perspective.Yates didn't set out to make a book. He just got up every morning before sunrise, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat in a chair in front of the window. And when he saw something that caught his eye, he grabbed his camera and took a picture.In about 2? years, he took nearly 1,700 photos.The digital images piled up, interspersed between the shots that "pay the bills," primarily photos for corporate clients. But at some point, Yates started to look at the views from his window as a collection. A big collection. His wife, Chrys, helped handle one of the toughest tasks for putting together "Burning Daylight" - selecting which photos to use.The book includes 42 photos. You can see them at burningdaylightbook.com.When talking about the book, Yates quotes Ansel Adams: "A good photograph is knowing where to stand."For him, that meant not only traveling to distant places but also standing at his window. Or sitting in the chair and waiting.He recalls watching fishermen, not quite understanding the appeal of spending time, patiently dangling a line in the water. And then it hit him. He was doing the same thing as the fishermen."He's waiting for the fish," he said. "I'm waiting for the light."Just because the book is done doesn't mean he's stopped waiting by the window. The day I was at his studio in Five Points, he pulled up a photo from that morning. It was different from anything in "Burning Daylight." It was beautiful and funny. The sky had one cloud, shaped like a big, flying duck.I'm not sure if anyone else noticed it. But he hopes that's what the book will do. Not just give people a chance to see what he captured with his Canon, but make them pause and notice the beauty around them.He knows some of his neighbors already are doing that. His wife says they will be out walking the dog in Memorial Park and someone will excitedly yell: "Did you see it this morning, Bill?"mark.woods@jacksonville.com,(904) 359-4212