Unrelated commonalities

Two completely unrelated photographs. Where is the connection? They were taken on the same day; is that enough to tie them together? The coloring is similar, but not exact. Light plays an important role in both pictures; in the first one, the sun is behind me and in the other the sun is to my right. The sun was setting on both of these shots. But, are those enough to relate the two pictures together?

Do these photographs share anything in common?

Both pictures show a journey. The cyclist is only seen in shadow. The viewer doesn't actually see who's on the bike, where he is headed, what he has seen on his ride or how many miles he has already travelled. The spider's web is also a journey, of sorts. The spider, like the cyclist, is out of view, but has been busy. How many times did he circle round and round? How long did he work at it? It's difficult to tell from the shot because there is no perspective, but the size of this web was about 2.5 square feet.

As I think more about these two photographs, it's the circles that connect them for me. The wheels with the spokes radiating out to the rim; and the fragile, thin silky thread, moving with the wind. Both of these photographs remind me of Kelly's and our family's journey over the past nine months. An exciting, wind-in-the-hair experience, but also hanging on by a thread at times.

Through the years, photographs with circular focus have collected in my albums, but I'd never tied them together before, until now. It's fun to pull them out into a group, and to remember where we were, what we were doing, why we were there... the journey for each picture.

Kelly left Afghanistan yesterday and is in Kuwait. The loop in this circle is almost completely closed up. I'm looking forward to some long bike rides in our future, ...and no more hanging on by a thread!