Aura photography

[jack]

For a couple of days I begged her indulgence to crash on her sumptuous couch, and dragged us both out of bed at dawn. She was always tightly controlled, so unused to company, but so lovely, dressing completely before coming down and making us both a cup of coffee and, as we quickly fell into the habit of, some French toast, finally unwinding enough I dared speak to her as we ventured out of the front door into the cool bright light of the pre-dawn.

To the east, the best horizon was to go out into the street and shoot down the length. She would stand, thawing, in the brilliant light, and I'd frame her head in front of the sun, in the least approved lighting orientation imaginable.

When the sun had risen from the horizon, she would stubbornly return to bed for an hour, courteously offering me the run of the house. I, unable to relax in her living room, would flick through the early edition of the newspaper she had delivered, and load my new photos onto my laptop, and ponder them.

In the evening, the garden offered a quite acceptable sunset between the trees, and I persuaded her to relish the short grass, the second day persuading her to let me undo her shoes and to slip them off, standing grinning, leaning proudly on her eagle umbrella, braced against the orange red sky.