{days seven and eight}

I was going to cheat, and pretend that these were taken Saturday and Sunday, respectively. But I'm not good at being dishonest and I figure since I took so many pictures Saturday, I can still call them by different days. And to be fair, a few of the fire pictures were technically taken on Sunday early morning. We're calling this picture day seven.

I love the simple joy this captures as she swings. Raw, unadulterated happiness. The kind of happiness that only comes in fleeting spurts as adults, but that children seem to live in perpetually. The joy of innocence. That is certainly something to celebrate. 

Later that night (and early into the next day) I discovered my own brand of joy. Of course it involved my camera, as so much of my joy seems to. But this happiness involved photographing something I've never played with before. A way to stretch myself with different lighting, a good opportunity to practice shooting manually. A little "session" that ended with me getting some of my favorite pictures to date (an impressive statement considering my daughter wasn't in any of them.)

Fire is fun. There is a strange sort of beauty in something that can be so destructive if allowed to get out of hand. A sort of magic in the play of lights, the melting of glass bottles, the warping of wood. I was mystified by the colors of the trees as the fire reflected off of them, and the shadows playing across the faces of the people I love. 

At the end of the day, there's nothing more important than that.