Looking back through the clouds

What do you see here?
Laval, QC
July 2009
This photo originally shared on Instagram

14 years ago, I stood on the 12th floor balcony of my in-laws’ condo and shot a distant storm front as it moved in.

As she often did when I took weird photos on our visits back to our childhood hometown of Chomedey, my mother-in-law reviewed my work afterward on the screen of my camera. We’d banter for a bit about the rough images, and as we did she’d crack a wry smile - which was her way of signalling approval and joy.

It now seems like a lifetime ago as we close in on 11 years since losing her and 5 since losing my father-in-law. Their apartment is now home to someone else, leaving me looking for new vantage points to shoot scenes like this.

Looking back at images from this chapter feels like a visceral kick in the soul, a none-too-subtle reminder that everything is constantly changing, and the experiences that feed us are inevitably destined to slip through our fingers more quickly than we’d like.

Seriously, I blinked and moments like this turned into history.

As glad as I am to have taken the time to freeze them in pixels, I still wish I had had more time to begin with.

That time thing again. We never seem to get enough of it.

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Related:

One last view from the 12th floor, November 2019

Another view of the clouds, July 2019

Puffy white clouds against a perfect blue sky, July 2019

Up here vs. down there, December 2018

Two birds, one sky, January 2018

Something wicked this way comes, October 2017

A face in the clouds, September 2017