A Passion Shared

Finding time to shoot is a constant negotiation. Work, kids, the endless list of things that need doing — free time is genuinely scarce, and when I have it, I want to spend it with my family. That sometimes means photography takes a back seat. It's a trade I make willingly, but it's still a trade.

Sometimes, though, everything aligns.

My little guy is four now. A tornado of energy and questions and chaos, growing faster than I can keep up with. As he gets older I've been doing my best to bring him into the things I love — the woods, the wildlife, the simple act of being outside and paying attention. I have grand plans for him to become my full-time adventure buddy someday. He seems to be on board.

He's been coming out with me more lately, happily trudging along under his own steam, curious about everything. It's not exactly efficient wildlife photography — a four-year-old in the woods is roughly the opposite of stealthy — but we find more than you'd expect. Mostly because he's genuinely looking.

We snuck away to a local park one recent evening, right in that golden window around dinner time when the light goes warm and everything slows down a little. We walked the woods, listened to the birds, laughed at the squirrels doing their chaotic squirrel things. A few deer let us get close enough for some frames. A toad sat for a portrait. A salamander made a brief, wiggly appearance. A fox cut across the path with what looked like fresh dinner in its mouth — there and gone in seconds, but enough to make both of us stop and stare.

It was a quiet evening, nothing dramatic, nothing far from home. But I came back with some images I'm genuinely happy with and a feeling that's hard to name exactly — somewhere between grateful and hopeful. Good for the soul, as these evenings tend to be.

I hope there are a lot more of them.