In photos, as in life, sometimes being out of focus is o.k.

Today, I scrolled through some pictures I’d taken this year and found this photo I took of a snail on a strawberry in July.

This snail was nestled in a pint of strawberries Scott had bought at the Kensington Farmer’s Market. We were surprised to see a tiny iridescent shell hanging off the side of a sweet crimson mountain on our kitchen counter. At first, the snail stayed very still. I thought it was dead. When the snail started to move, I put the snail and the strawberry on a paper towel and took several pictures à la Irving Penn. In one of my photos, the snail is about to summit the fruit. I should license that image to makers of motivational office art. (Remember offices?). The snail conquering the strawberry could represent “determination”, “persistence”, or some other managerial sentiment.

In this photo, the snail is descending the strawberry. I had nudged the berry several times to rotate the snail towards my camera lens. When I started to wonder if the snail felt disoriented or stressed, I took the snail outside and set it free in our backyard.

May your feelings of disorientation and stress give way to a sense of freedom in 2022.