Under a grey sky at the pond
Roseville, September, and a flat grey sky. The light is soft and even in every frame here, with no hard shadows on anyone’s face. Four of the frames are by a muddy pond edged with reeds, with a hillside of dry yellow grass and a line of oaks behind it. Three are in front of shrubs with some leaves turning yellow and red, and the last is on a concrete path.
The first frame has three things happening in it, and none of them involves the camera. The older boy stands sharp in the foreground, looking up and out of the frame. The toddler is walking away toward the long grass. Behind them, a little soft, the parents are kissing.
Everyone is in plaid. The father and the older boy wear brown and cream plaid shirts, the mother a plaid skirt with a cream top, and the toddler a smaller blue and tan check over brown trousers. Several frames are of the family in motion. The parents swing the toddler between them by his hands while the older boy hangs from his father’s other hand. The two boys walk across the dry grass toward their parents’ open arms. The mother tips her head back and lifts the toddler high over her head.
The close frames are stiller. The mother kisses the toddler’s cheek with her eyes shut, and he laughs straight into the lens with a hand at his mouth. In the tight frame of all four, the father grins at the older boy and the mother smiles at the toddler in her arms. The last frame is a set-up, and it looks like one. The parents’ arms make a heart, and through it, down a concrete path, the toddler stands while the older boy sits with one arm out.
