Yes, I'm still doing a 365, and yes, I'm still taking pictures of our river every weekend. It's such a small stretch, at this one spot near our house, that we can get to. I'm having a bit of a time finding ways to mix it up. So I look for different angles, different light, different times of day. I may need to move my spot eventually, but for right now, it has changed enough that we're still good. This night, last Friday, was the latest we'd been. Not a great sunset, but a deep blue glow had fallen along the water and the lights were coming on along the docks and the shipyards.

And while we've had company on our river jaunts before, kids and dogs scrambling along the rocks, this was a first. A young man, camped out quite deliberately. He had his beach chair, a cigar, a beer and some quiet music playing. That second photo with the flag may have been my best picture of the night, but it was this shot of a solitary evening's enjoyment that I chose to represent that day's 365. How could I not?

My goal for my Mother's Day 365 photo project was to get some pictures of my family using my heretofore unused camera remote. There was a sharp learning curve, both in mastering the remote and in unlocking my willingness to be in front of the camera, not just behind it. I'm not quite there yet.

As photos go, they're not great. The focus is in the wrong place, and the cropping was off. My friend Rooth asked in the comments last week about how long a photo shoot generally takes me. She was talking about when I photograph food. This was short! I worry that people get impatient with me, so I don't want to take too long. With food, or other still life, I can take my time. I'll write more about photographing food next week, if you'd like. I've been thinking about why it's important to me a lot lately.

And I like to think that we had fun on Sunday though. And still, imperfect as these pictures are and as we are (well, I am) well, here we are. Callum's taller than me now. We just discovered that on Saturday night. My heart thrills with pride when I stand next to him, when I stand between the two of them.

Yeah, imperfect as these photos are, this is us.

night river {life}

this is us {life}