Running on the Beach Without Grandma

One of my all-time favorite photos is of my wife, Sara, and our niece. Disclaimer: This photo has been extremely altered.

We traveled to Florida for Thanksgiving in 2013 and decided to spend the day on the beach. Our plans were to relax, enjoy the sunshine, and listen to the waves. For me, that lasted about 5 min before I got bored and decided to walk around with my camera.

When I started making my way back to the beach chair, I noticed Sara, her mom, and our niece playing and running from the waves and having a great time. I had no desire to get wet, but I did take the opportunity to snap a few shots.

I wasn’t too thrilled about this photo because Sara’s mom was in the background with about half her face blocked from view. I jokingly said, “This would be a great photo if I chopped you out.” She responded, “There is no way could take me out of the picture!”

45 minutes later, she was gone forever from this image. If you look close, I actually missed a small part of the shadow in the background. This situation helped me learn to pay closer attention to what’s in the background when I’m snapping away. I can’t afford to spend 45 min editing every photo, but for this one, I made an exception.

I feel like it really captures the moment and feelings from that day.