I love looking back on photos from family trips. It takes me right back to one of the many reasons I love photography - documenting everyday life moments. This trip was marked by a lot of debilitating pregnancy pain and ultimately almost everyone caught covid when the trip was over. We were set to visit some friends in Buffalo not too long after this so the timing could not have been worse! Ironically, getting covid on this trip meant something in the future to us we didn't know was set to happen yet. When Silas was born, we had been exposed to covid and thought we would be unable to go back into the NICU to see him. Once the hospital found out we had covid within the last 90 days, they considered us "covid clear" and were allowed to see Silas again (it was the most painful of 3 hours waiting to hear if we would have to wait 14 days to see our newborn son again). So I guess this trip was God's way of giving us something we needed (a chance to still be able to see our son), even though the way it was given to us was marked by pain and dealing with sickness as a family.
On another note, I've been restricting myself to only using a 50mm lens recently and it has been tough. I've shot almost exclusively with a 35mm for the past 10 years so forcing myself to frame using a different focal length has felt incredibly unnatural. I don't know if I'm crazy for making myself do these types of tests but part of me feels it's good to push myself to not get too set into the mould I've made for myself. What if I'm missing out on something beautiful that only exists within the glass of another lens? What if I'm hurting my art by only seeing life through one focal length?
