Photo Ops......

I have been talking online recently with a lovely woman. Even though she is quite a bit younger than I am, we seem to have connected.

I don't talk to her every single day, but often enough. Mostly, I find myself compelled to go to that website we both use and see what she has posted. You see, she is an artist. Digital images are her medium. Photos of anything and everything. She has quite an eye for composition and color.

Recently, I have noticed that she is writing more, too. Originally, her words were no more than a caption for each photo. True, they were quite clever, and well-written, but really, just captions. Now, her captions are too long to be captions: they are commentaries.

Commentaries about the provenance that put her in that spot, at that time, so she could photograph an awe-inspiring sunset, or a nearly perfect flower. Or her beautiful daughter. Sometimes in color, other times in black and white, or sepia. Always poignant. Always beautiful.

She wrote something not too long ago that made me smile and made me cry, both at the same time. She is happy now. She likes where she is in her life. Things have settled down and become simpler. Easier. More peaceful.

She wrote that her twenties and thirties were too tumultuous. Too trying. And she was too timid. She let things happen to her, or around her, that were not of her choosing. And not to her liking. And she thought it was her job to just endure....

Now, in her forties, she knows better. Life is not to be endured. It is to be enjoyed. And that enjoyment has to be shared with others. She does just that with her beautiful photography.

She said that she likes the place she has traveled to. She thinks it is better that she had her child a little later, because she is more settled now. Better equipped to handle a child. Ready to give love and receive it in return.

She is married to a professional photographer. He has shared some of the secrets of the trade with her, but he is the first one to proclaim that he couldn't teach her to have an eye for photography. She had that on her own. And she has taught him, too: to relax and just let things happen.

He is from the old school: F-stops, photography paper, prints developed in his own darkroom, hanging from a cord. Painstakingly processed until just the right feeling is portrayed. A long and arduous process, to say the least. But she has gently nudged him into the twenty-first century: he just bought a digital camera.

They share a love for photography, and a love of the outdoors. I think his presence in her life has helped her find balance. And peace. She has learned, from him, to love herself. Just as she is.

She has other interests, too. She finds time to bake bread every week. She does scrapbooking with her photos. Online, not in a scrapbook. She is active in her child's life, too. And well-respected in her workplace. All the little pieces of her life have fallen into place in a good way. She is stronger, happier, and healthier than she has been in years.

And, did I mention? She is my daughter.