On a recent work trip to New Orleans, I woke early several mornings to go for a run along the street car tracks. Morning runs, in the quiet before the world wakes, are a treasured time for solitude for me. On the morning in this shot, I returned from a 7am run drenched in sweat. My coworkers were asleep. The neighborhood was asleep. Birds tweeted and the pool was still and cool. I dove in in my running clothes, then floated on my back with my ears underwater, alone and smiling.
Our family recently spent a weekend in a cabin in Fairy Stone Park, Virginia. We rented a canoe for an hour, then returned to the dock and rented it for 24. Our son loved the quiet dip of the paddle in water, the smooth glide of the canoe. The kids and I paddled in the afternoon. In evening, they paddled with their dad. After dark, my son and I paddled into the darkness till we got out from under the trees to float under a full moon. We dipped wood into water, listened to small gurgles as we pulled gently, smelled the first sweet night blooms of spring, and lost ourselves in the silver path the moon laid on the black surface of the lake.
I get frustrated sometimes on my runs. I’ll see water droplets on meadow grass like this and I’ll snap shot after shot with my sweaty iPhone, wishing I had my real camera so I could play with light and focus and depth of field. Still, the phone camera keeps me running, and it keeps me shooting. And practice makes progress, if not perfection.
One of my favorite things about early morning runs is the quiet. The streets are empty, and the flower cart pops with color — without the distraction of shiny metal cars zooming by.
We bought a house. And we’re changing everything about it. We ripped out carpets to install wood flooring upstairs, and to paint the concrete in the basement downstairs.
And for the first time ever, I will have my own room to work from. My own office.
I’ve already removed all the hardware and taped off so I can paint. I can’t wait.
The Daily Post has a Photography 101 course coming up as part of the Blogging University series, and I’ll be helping out with the course (yay!). I may even participate by posting some photographs here on my blog (double yay!).
The course will run June 8 through July 3. Join us – it will be fun 🙂
Designed with WordPress
Butterfly Mind 