This is the first photo I’ve edited in Lightroom, the popular Adobe photo editing program.

I liked the experience. I have more to learn, but my work with the other photo applications have helped me navigate Light Room more coherently. What a learning curve.

This photograph is special to me. Maria is a voracious reader and as hard as we work all day, at night, it gets very quiet in the farmhouse. I go to sort through the day’s photos and post some and also write about my life and world and work on the blog.

Maria and I move off into separate corners of the farmhouse, she goes into the living room to read while I’m in my study. We don’t speak much to one another, except to bring each other some tea, and we both get lost in our work.

The room is usually dark and quiet, the dogs go to sleep, the light from her lamp shines on her books. Something intimate and beautiful about the image.

We have no television, sometimes we stream shows in bed on my iPhone. It works well for us. But neither of us has spent much time in front of televisions.

This photo captures the experience at night, I call Maria the “Night Reader.” In the morning, when she isn’t studying the snails, she tells me about the books she’s reading and I tell her about the things I’ve written and the responses I’ve gotten.

I see Zinnia has entered the photograph, watching Maria from the hallway.