My daughter Emma is very different from me. She has her mother’s thoughtfulness and caution but not my impulse or delusions. I never wait when I can plunge.

She always waits and never plunges.

Last year, as a birthday present, I gave Emma the newest version of the Canon 5 D, the excellent camera I have used almost every year since I got serious about photography.

Shortly after that, I got my first Leica, then my second, and to pay for them, I sent my Canon and all of my lenses in two big boxes to B&H Photo in New York. It broke my heart, but only for a day or so.

I have no regrets, although I can’t say enough about that camera. It was time for me to move on. Emma said she wouldn’t use the camera until she learned much about it. She is not like me in that way.

I owe the 5 D a Lot. I kept the first one I had next to my computer; I could never sell it or trade it in.

Emma and I had troubles after my divorce from her mother; I think photography, as much as anything else, has brought us back together again. This is often how we speak to one another and show our love and connection.

Photography is also how she kept me in touch with Robin during the pandemic years when we could not see one another.

Today, she sent me a message saying she was “getting the hang of the Canon” and sent a half dozen beautiful photos by text. She is nothing if understated. “I have a lot to learn,” she said when I told her the pictures were beautiful, “but it is pretty impressive.”

That is her way of telling me she is excited.

We agree on that.

Her photos were impressive; I especially noticed the detail, depth of field, and color. It isn’t easy to take fresh pictures of the Manhattan skyline, but she managed, as well as several of Robin, one of a Brooklyn Bridge vendor, and a lovely art shot of a flower that grows in Brooklyn.

I am proud of her, of course, but also very gratified that she is finally using this camera. It will change things for her. She is a natural photographer with a fantastic sense of composition.

When I started, she skipped the year or so I spent taking photos of dead leaves ( I was depressed) and went straight to those. She has a natural gift for beautiful images that are restrained, dignified, and tell a story.

The color and composition are brilliant.