Flickr a Day 214: ‘Happy Birthday’

We pause from the recent run of black and whites—but not yesterday’s colorful Cecil the lion—to calmly celebrate. Today, my daughter turns 21, as did Scott Ackerman when he shot this photo on Jan. 23, 2011, using the Pentax K-x. Vitals: f/4.5, ISO 3200, 1/50 sec, 42.5mm.

Scott expresses something my daughter does: “I’m mainly celebrating this birthday because I can now go out to bars with friends and not have to worry about being carded even though I don’t drink alcohol”. I worry she will imbibe. Scott joined Flickr in June 2008. You also can find him on Tumblr and Twitter

As for my daughter, Molly was born on this day 1994, in a Bethesda, Md. midwifery. At the time, Maryland had one of the highest cesarian rates, accounting for about one-third of births. We chose wisely by avoiding the hospital route. Molly came 18 days late—likely a doctor would have induced.

Her great-great grandmother, age 94, declined in health during those 18 days. I told my wife: “This baby won’t come until Gram passes”. She died near Noon on August 1st. Anne gave birth around 9:14 a.m. EDT the next day. When we chose our girl’s name, we didn’t understand then that Molly also is a nickname for Mary, which was Gram’s name.

Photo Credit: Scott Akerman