I know we usually kick off the week with some big, iconic scene, but I was feeling a little more serene coming out of this weekend. This is the sort of shot that comes with the gratitude of living here and being able to indulge in the little details. My kids are at Mitsukoshi enough to know when a katana changes in the display, and they're on Living with the Land enough to see the pumpkins slowly grow into their Mickey molds. And I'm here enough to be able to indulge in a day of photographing nothing but the water lilies on the same attraction. We were on early one morning recently and the sun was hitting the water just right as this lily opened to daylight over the water.
Because water lilies retreat underwater at night and reopen with the morning light, they’ve long symbolized renewal and resilience—closing up during darkness and then blooming again with the sunrise. I spoke about resilience at one of my most favorite conferences of the year this past weekend and so this felt especially appropriate today.
Shot at around 250mm on a slow-moving boat in the morning hours, 1/250 second, f/1.8, ISO 100.