All of Neel's hard work (Is it really work when it's such a labor of love?) is paying off and the garden is bursting into full-blooming color. My favorite time each spring is when the phlox is blooming along our front path and I can walk among it every time I go into the house. It's no longer 40ยบ and sleeting. The tide has turned. I think it really has.
As many of you know, I'm working on a 365 project this year. You can see my photos (and many other inspiring projects) here. Knowing that I struggle with follow through (ahem), I gave myself a ton of leeway with this one from the get go. I can use my phone if I need to, I'm not going to sweat it if I miss a day, and I'm just going to shoot the things that take my fancy, relying on prompts and themes only if I feel the urge. Many people work best under the constranints of a structure (how do 365 self-portraits sound to you?!), but I'm trying to go a little easy on myself here.
One thing that I started, almost by accident, was taking pictures of the river near our home. We are just a few blocks from the Elizabeth River, an easy walk, and my Friday commute (I generally run Callum to school on Friday before my hikes with my friend Tracy) has me coming up on the river at unexpected times of the day. So one Friday I took a picture. And then another. And then I started to think, maybe this will be a little mini project within my 365. Fridays on the river. When Callum had his ski accident, that plan went out the window, but hey, I'm giving myself some leeway, so my Fridays on the River became Weekends on the River, and now we're nine weeks in (I started a little late!). Some days the wind was whipping, casting white caps on the water, and one day the tide was out, allowing me to hop down on the sand. One Sunday morning I woke up to the distant, mournful tones of the fog horn on the water. Before anyone was up, I grabbed my camera and hopped in the car (jammies still on!). That's picture number four above.
I've done a little research on projects that take a photo a day at the same place, and if I start to feel myself getting stuck, I'll do more. Right now, this one is my favorite. What I'm doing is nothing like that! What I know is that water calls me, and even when I think I can never get another interesting shot from this same spot at the end of the street, I have but to walk down there, and there's something new to see.
For each shot I pick for my 365, there are dozens that don't make the cut. Sometimes there are obvious reasons, and sometimes it's hard to make the choice. Sometimes the outtakes are just as lovely as the photo I choose; they simply aren't the story I want to tell on that particular day. For the River Shots, that's particularly true, and I thought I'd share a few of my outtakes here today.
These final three are all from last Friday night. I wanted shots from the shipping yards as the lights came on, but we lucked out with a gorgeous sunset too. How do you choose? And what do you do once you've gathered them all together?