In the last two years all of my photos were taken with my iPhone. This is because of the vast improvements in the iPhone cameras and my need to stay up to date with all the technology for the iPhone photographer classes that I teach.

Yet this fall, after my partner’s 65th birthday, I looked at the beautiful light and the deflating blue and white balloons and I went into the house to get one of my cameras. I am not sure why, but perhaps I am more mindful when I am concentrating on adjusting the variables.

What was certain was that my life was changing for reasons beyond pandemic and politics. I looked at sinking balloons on an early autumn afternoon and saw bravado.