Back to the Seals

I traveled to California throughout the pandemic. I still do. Not for the fun of it. My daughter lives in San Diego with my ex-wife. 2020 was a hard year, even harder when the miles separate you from your child. When the pandemic began, I went seven months without seeing my little girl. I watched her turn two on Facetime. My ex-wife and I eventually decided that with a plan for testing and quarantine, we could make something work. Even with a pandemic happening, I needed to see her. I yearned to see my baby. I would do anything and go to any lengths to make that happen. My daughter had only seen me for seven months, boxed through the screen of an iPhone. The end of June 2020 was my first trip back there. She laid her head on my shoulder as I wrapped her in my arms. Tears welled up in my eyes. It was heaven from the moment that I held her again. Nine days went by quickly. Nine days doesn’t even come close to enough time. It’s never enough time. My next trip would end up being four months away. In October when I was meant to go, my ex-wife called to tell me that both her and my daughter contracted COVID. I was terrified. I thank God that they were both ok. I flew back out shortly after they had ended their quarantine. Every trip I make to California, I make it a point to just be with my daughter. So, my daughter and I spend a lot of time in nature, outside, together. We often go on easy hikes, walks around the neighborhood of whatever Airbnb I’m staying at, or go to the beach. She loves being outside. One of our most favorite things to do is to watch the seals in La Jolla. It always starts with a run in the open grass, chasing the birds with the California sun beaming down on us. We hear the seals barking in the distance, and we steadily make our way closer. We walk down the flat rocks a bit and look around. We always try to get close, real close, so we can really see them. She wants to touch them; I always insist that we can’t. We listen to them barking and watch them bathing in the sun. There’s small groups of seals all huddled together. Some have their necks arched back, some are fighting, some are just alone. Their smell isn’t so great, it never is. The two of us stand there, giggling at the silly seals while her little hand is in mine. I cherish these moments immensely. Something so simple and so meaningful. I steal these moments of time with photos whenever I can. Sometimes they are all I have. When I’m back in DC apart from my daughter, I look back on these memories. I close my eyes and remember. I feel her little hand in mine, I feel the sun on my face, the sound of the waves, the seals barking, and her little laugh. Some people will never think anything more of the seals at La Jolla. I will always think of more.

I adjusted some of these photos until they captured more of the story that I am trying to tell, or feelings I am trying to bring to life. One of the photo’s I bumped up the exposure by half, lowered the brilliance by half, lowered the highlights (-30), lowered the shadows (-30), lowered the contrast (-35), lowered the brightness (-12), adjusted the black point up (12), adjusted the saturation up (15), adjusted the vibrance up (5), adjusted warmth up (5), adjusted the tint up (30), the sharpness stayed at 0, the definition was adjusted up (10), and the vignette was adjusted to 100. This varies by photo, but I tend to go in these directions of turning up or turning down each category.