Photo Friday: a summer storm & a bee’s shadow

Happy photo Friday, DMV! It’s July 24.

Send me your photos. Tell me a story. Give us all a glimpse of anything that makes you happy, gives you peace or simply helps you put one foot in front of the other each day.

Each Friday, I offer you reader photos to give me a break from reporting and writing. I try my best not to repeat photographers and to get as wide an array of reader submissions as possible, so if you’ve been mulling it, just do it!

I generally get more pics from women than men and from readers who skew older. The more the merrier; the more diverse an array of contributors, the more interesting and reflective of our communities.

Dan Woolley, 71, of Herndon, Virginia, is among my readers who send the most photos — often not for publication, but simply as a dose of joy for me. (Thanks, Dan!) Here are two he sent last month.

This one was taken June 12 at George Mason University as a storm rolled in during the “Run Unbridled Track Fest” of the Light Horse Track Club, a community running club based in Loudoun and Fairfax counties.

“I just found the image intriguing as the wind blew tents off the infield and stands, and we rushed the athletes and spectators into the field house as lightning filled the sky,” Dan wrote me in an email.

He took this photo on the afternoon of June 9 in his “ever expanding daisy patch” in his front yard.

“As I was heading to check the mail … I looked down and saw little pollinators swarming my daisies,” he wrote.

“I could not pass up the opportunity, so I grabbed my camera, a step stool from the garage, settled in, and waited to capture some fun images — I wasn't disappointed. Nothing like sitting in the warm sun in a flower patch with a camera while little pollinators buzz in and out of the colorful flowers.”

This newsletter is free. I work on it solo, spending hours each day going out around town, interviewing people and writing — because I seek joy and want to share it with you. My Daily Dose is a community gratitude journal, and I love doing it. Please consider supporting my work with a one-time, monthly or yearly donation to help keep me going. Do you know anyone who would enjoy reading me? Forward this to them to help me grow. To subscribe, click here. To read my previous posts, dive in here.

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