Photo: Ambushed

On first glance this may not seem to exemplify Photo Friday's current theme of ambushed. But an ambush of sorts is what it took to get this shot, taken in the spring of 2002 near the outpost town of Roddickton, Newfoundland. This is my mom, a difficult photo subject – with a lengthy record of declining photos and snubbing the camera. On this trip the two of us took together to The Rock, we stayed with a friendly local couple at their cabin (a misnomer, kind of, the place was nine miles' boat ride from their house). Holed up there on a lousy, wet Newfie day, the sun finally broke through with about an hour's daylight to spare – and we tried fishing; rather, my mom and I watched our hosts as they explained the finer points of trying for some of their native ocean-going species. Camera at the ready for a potential bite, I nabbed this shot as my mom was distracted for a moment. I'm not even certain she was even aware it had happened – a photo-ambush. And probably the most honest picture I have of her; no posing, no forced emotions, no hands-out refusal of my attempt.

You can click here for a more detailed image. I played a bit with the time-limited free download of Flaming Pear's Melancholytron photo filter on this shot.