Northport, Alabama

This photo serves as my logo and the inspiration for my company, Cloudybright Communications, which I founded two years ago this month. At the time that it was taken, I was at a crossroads career-wise, conflicted in my choices as editor of a weekly newspaper. More and more often, I was too busy to shoot assignments, forcing me to send others in my place while I remained at the office, writing yet another story. My creativity was dying, and I wondered if I would ever feel passionate about my photography again.

One beautiful afternoon following a week of storms, I took a rare lunch break away from my desk, casually tossing my camera in the backseat as I left. The image on this page is the result of that excursion, taken from the restaurant’s pier looking out towards a rain-swollen river. At the time, I just thought it would be a pretty image for the front page, but the joy it awakened wouldn’t be silenced. The memory of that day — the sight of the sun breaking from the dark clouds, the glorious moment of tranquility that could only be expressed on film — that feeling could not be ignored. The passion was still there, it had just been hidden by the tempest.

That afternoon, I knew that I had to find time for my photography, even if only on a weekend freelance basis. I toyed with the idea of founding a freelance business called Cloudybright, inspired by the photograph and honoring the dark and bright aspects of my life and personality, but it seemed frivolous at the time. Little did I know that I would become a full-time freelancer six months later. When I saw that today’s Photo Friday challenge was “Clouds,” I couldn’t resist making this today’s photo.