‘Dad teaching a valuable life lesson’: Daughter too busy taking photos at the beach to notice incoming wave, so dad lets her find out for herself

The modern obsession with documenting every piece of one’s life is morbidly fascinating. What’s the difference between enjoying an intimate moment and using that moment to prove to everyone how lucky/happy/generally blessed you are?

But what about the middle ground? What about those whose artistic self-expression and professional heft relies on capturing moments that they stumble upon in the world? Well, as it turns out, it doesn’t matter what moment you’re trying to capture, because Mother Nature has a zero-tolerance policy on lacking spatial awareness.

Spatial awareness, of course, is a key skill for any photographer, but sometimes you have to sacrifice it to make the rest of it pop, and that’s precisely what TikTok‘s @sallysparrow.photography seems to be doing here. Indeed, whatever position is needed for the sake of this mermaid-esque photoshoot at the beach, you can bet that Sally is going find it and take it.

Evidently, that position happens to be right in the crosshairs of an encroaching tide that Sally doesn’t seem to notice on account of being too distracted by her muse. Her father, no doubt identifying this as a teaching moment on being aware of all your surroundings (i.e. the ones not in the frame), wordlessly allows the ocean to engulf Sally’s shoes, earning him an unimpressed glance from his daughter.

But Sally is nothing if not an ambitious artist, willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of her work. And, per the video’s description, it sounds like Sally embraced the ocean in an even fuller capacity to get the shot her client deserved.

It’s worth noting, of course, that Sally was pulling a pretty big marine no-no by keeping her back turned to the ocean. It’s true that the waves weren’t presently powerful enough to send her forehead onto the rocks in front of her, but that doesn’t mean things couldn’t have changed in the blink of an eye. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reminds us of the Hawaiian proverb “Mai huli ‘oe I kokua o ke kai,” meaning “Never turn your back on the ocean,” a phrase coined by athlete Duke Kahanamoku, who singlehandedly popularized surfing as a sport in the early 1910s.

The proverb reminds us that the ocean’s aggression can flick on and off on a dime, and that it’s always wise to be cognizant of the sheer power that it’s capable of unleashing. Yes, even more power than the best mermaid snapshot you ever did see, but that’s sure as hell not going to stop Sally from snagging such a snapshot anyway. Such is the dedication of a professional artist.