The 100 Day Project #58

Valentine’s Day at Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, NY, 2021

The 100 Day Project, Day 58

During the pandemic, Mike and I took long drives to survive. On Valentine's Day in 2021 we took the two-lane highways from Rochester to Niagara Falls. As is our tradition on long drives, we stopped for lattes on the way out of town, sipping and sighing as the miles swept by.

The day was gloriously clear — deep blue sky, fresh snow, the trees lined in white, the ground sparkling under a thin layer of ice.

The scene reminded me of Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte — figures moving through a luminous landscape, each absorbed in their own quiet moment, the whole composition somehow both busy and still. Couples and families wandering through the white, the falls roaring beyond them, the air crisp. This photograph became our holiday card for 2025.

Finding beauty in the middle of a hard time is not a small thing. Hard seasons have a way of quietly draining us — our energy, our optimism, our reserves — in ways we don't always notice until we are running on empty. Beauty replenishes what difficulty takes. It is a quiet reminder that time keeps doing its work — offering perspective, softening edges, moving us through until the season turns.

About the 100 Day Project: A global creative challenge where thousands of artists share a piece of their practice every single day for 100 days. I'm joining creatives around the world, and I'm excited to bring you along. Each day I'll be sharing one of my photos — some recent, some old, and some from my current project — along with the story behind it: where I was, who I was with, and why I love it.