As February draws to a close, it's time again for me to turn my attention away from the coast and into the forest. Life is certainly on the cusp of popping out of the thick leaf litter once again. And decay. Mushrooms and fungi. Like the False Turkey Tail Mushrooms...
"And then, some morning in the second week, the mind wakes, comes to life again. Not in a city sense--no--but beach-wise. It begins to drift, to play, to turn over in gentle careless rolls like those lazy waves on the beach. One never knows what chance treasures...
When I was a boy--aside from the obvious ball sports like basketball and football--I spent my time with a bunch of matchbox cars that I liked to line up and organize every day. I'm not sure what I got out of that. I also had a bunch of marbles and crayons. I've...
As a kid, my family always went to the Outer Banks in the heat of summer. I came to love the Outer Banks during summer. First, it was simply spending all day long in the waves. Not coming out until my eyes were bloodshot and my skin sunburned. Then, it was...
The Scotch Bonnet is considered, by many, to be the holy grail of beachcombing finds in North Carolina. This little three-inch long, plaid checkered sea snail shell is quite a difficult find. Oddly enough, the Scotch Bonnet was deemed the official state shell of...
Did you know that sea pottery, or sea china, was a thing? I didn't! Sea pottery is shards of broken earthenware that has undergone the same process as sea glass: broken, tumbled, smoothed and spit back into the shell hash with the tides. When I first started...
New home for sale: priced to move. Bargain. May have dings, dents, and considerable blemish to the finish. Spacious interior. Unconditioned space. Single occupancy preferred. Best offers only. Shark-Eye Moon Snail Shell found along Cape Hatteras National...
Happy #stackersaturday! It always gives me a kick thinking about what is considered acceptable, honorable uses of ones time, energy and effort. And, on the flip side, what is considered wasteful, unproductive, and ultimately unacceptable. I've spent twelve hour days...
This was one of those poor-planning-lazy-wakeup-didn't-quite-get-to-my-location-on-time type of photographs! By the time we cruised around the circle in front of the historic Bodie Island Lighthouse, the sky was already doing its thing. I just pulled the car onto...
Pure seascapes are something I love to shoot. Nothing but the ocean and the sky. The interface between land and water; marine and terrestrial. Moving water is mesmerizing to me and so fun to shoot behind the lens. Add some good light and all the ingredients are...
After several successful winters, I was baited into extending my typical one-month stay into a two-month adventure including February. It didn't go well. January was a bust. Weather was cold and wet. My productivity was minimal. February was much the same. There...
The Outer Banks are part of a lichen biodiversity hotspot. I had no idea! I'm familiar with lichens from my work in the Southern Appalachians, often considered the crown jewel of lichen biodiversity in this country. But, the Outer Banks? It turns out that the...
Walking the beach is like treasure hunting, at least for me. Every single night the entire physical landscape is washed and stripped. Changed. New tides bring forth new treasures. The ocean redistributes this wealth in accordance with weather, winds, tides etc....
February 2021 was exceptionally wet in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It rained. And it rained again. All that water needs to go somewhere and there's nowhere really for it to go on a sandbar with a high water table. No sewers and streams and rivers to carry...
I want to be better at photographing intimate scenes. Like many, I chased grand landscapes when I began my career as a full time photographer. The grand landscape was the quickest and straightest route. In many respects, the grand landscape was a trail I felt I had...
It's said that purple holds both the energy and intensity of red, as well as the calm and authority of blue. In fact, purple has the shortest wavelength of all colors making it more powerful and intense than any other color, even red. In the natural world purple is...
You've probably heard this warning many times: don't leave a scene until the last light extinguishes! I was shooting the Oregon Inlet and newly constructed Marc Basnight Bridge in early January 2021. Winter's long night was fast approaching. The sky was gray and...
There are four types of Whelk shell that I run into when beachcombing Cape Hatteras National Seashore: the knobbed whelk, the pear whelk, the channel whelk, and the lightning whelk. This is a Lightning Whelk shell. Similar to knobbed whelks in appearance, it's only...
The forecast on this morning was for freezing ground fog. I couldn't recall a similar forecast. Consequently, I wasn't sure how to choose a sunrise location. So, I played it safe. By first light I was out behind the historic Bodie Island Lighthouse in South Nags...
When I first floated the idea of an extended winter stay in the Outer Banks, my primary curiosity was whether I'd be able to shoot worthwhile landscapes given the dormant landscape features. It turns out, everything on the ocean side looked similar. The soundside,...
I must admit, I was mildly obsessed with the Portuguese Man O' War when I found my first one on Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The pink and blue translucent colors on the sail, as well as the mesmerizing patterns within the individual tentacles...they grabbed my...
A question I field regularly is whether I prefer incoming (push) or outgoing (pull) waves. The only way to answer that question is, it depends! Without situational context, I would tell you outgoing waves. Shooting with water in the frame generally means wet feet,...
Not all seashells are pretty. This Knobbed Whelk shell was worn and battered, not to mention incredibly large, awkward, and heavy to carry around! However, I found the bright orange aperture--or opening--very striking against the virtually bone white coloring of the...
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is my comfort blanket. It's where I go when I want solitude. Above all, it is a place to be creative without purpose or plan. A thirteen mile stretch of barrier island absent development, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge was...
Knobbed Whelk shells are quite the prize for non-discriminate beachcombers. Non-discriminate because they are rather gratuitous in size! Their thick, strong shells allow many Knobbed Whelks to make it through the rough surf and onto the beaches of Cape Hatteras...
Bad weather is good weather for landscape photography. Bad weather is what drove me towards the Oregon Inlet Lifesaving Station on this particular evening. During January in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, bad weather means some sort of cold front. And cold...
The mystery of the sea is very much alive, for me, in the Outer Banks. One of the neatest ways to touch this mystery is to find a bright colored piece of sea glass in a pile of shell hash along the beach. Like a valuable jewel, the colors--electric green, cobalt...