into the Fog

I photographed my friends’ family awhile back. As I drove home the light was golden and I was excited to get to the beach and capture it washing over them. The beach had other plans though and the fog rolled in unannounced. Stepping out onto the sand we ventured into a world wrapped soft in white. I tried to snap a few shots with a decent ISO that they could use for family portraits. Then the light beat a rapid retreat into sublime anonymity. My camera searched and found only soft suggestions of their form and shape, spots of color floating in the wilderness of wonder. I didn’t really look at the pictures much when I got home, afraid I had failed her. Finally I took them out this week, all covered in haze . . . I edited the few sharp ones and then I gave in, embraced their beauty, stepped into the fog and was overcome . . . I could never have created these, now my favorites, the blurry ones, piled layer upon layer of mystery, saying those things I can not say . . . in them I see me, and the dark, the light, clinging to a family and resting in the love, motherhood all wrapped round the edges with mystery  . . .

Thank you to my friend, her family and the fog.