Yesterday, I woke up at five to get some editing done. After working at my computer for an hour and a half, I could see the light starting to bloom from the kitchen window. I didn’t want to wake Ollie up, so I crept outside barefoot in the cool wet morning with my camera to the street in front of our studio apartment. A beautiful display of light shone on the clouds coalescing over the bay just a few hundred yards down the street. I knew that it would probably look even more amazing reflected over the water. I thought about who else might be photographing the sunrise, what photos I might see.

     Good for them, I thought. I’d rather be me, here in this moment, enjoying the cool air, the warm colors and knowing my daughter is sleeping peacefully 20 yards away. Photography can seem like a competition and I have a competitive drive, but sometimes it helps to put things in perspective. It’s good to push yourself, to put effort into your work, to wake up early, to hike long distances, to be near or in the water, to do your very best, but in the end it comes down to pushing a simple button. Even when it’s how you pay the rent, how you buy food, how you manage the expenses of contemporary life, it’s best to not take it too seriously. Otherwise you can spoil the moment, and that’s all we really ever have: moments in time and memories. And that is what photography is best at creating.