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Showing posts from 2021

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh: A Deeper Meaning

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ There will be times you will be in the field without a camera. And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. Don't be bitter because you can't record it. Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is! ”  - DeGriff     Season's Greetings! Please enjoy this Christmas post from December 25, 2021...      Many of us are familiar with the story in Matthew 2:11 of the Bible that tells us of the gifts brought to the infant Jesus by the three wise men. But did you know these expensive gifts may have had greater meaning than just adulatory tributes in the life of Christ?      Gold is the most straightforward of presents as the greatest precious metal and truly a gift worthy for a king, as Jesus is the King of all Christians. Frankincense, which comes from Boswellia sacra tree resin, was a wonderfully fragrant and expensive gift that was highly valued in the Middle

Center Stage: Inspiration for Personal Growth

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are looking so much. ”  - Annie Leibovitz      In a world seemingly custom designed to sink us into despair, we must remember the great good around us: the many people we know who do good things for their community. The helpers, as Fred (Mr.) Rogers' mom used to tell him. Look for the helpers when things are bad. You'll see the good overcoming the evil. We need inspiration like this, even when it's nature that provides it. As I wrote in my post on September 18, 2021...      We become quiet from anticipation as the darkness peaks just before the dawn. The show’s about to begin! Let the curtains open on this morning’s bright star. Let the sun’s glorious light wash over us from ‘Center Stage.’ Let the opportunities of a new day release what’s been holding us back. Let us realize where we’ve erred, learn from those hard

Vigilance: The Price of Liberty

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ I fell in love with the process of taking pictures, with wandering around finding things. To me, it feels like a kind of performance. The picture is a document of that performance. ”  - Alec Soth     “Some one has justly remarked, that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.’ Let the sentinels on the watch-tower sleep not, and slumber not.” -  an article in the May 2, 1833 edition of  The Virginia Free Press and Farmers' Repository      We will never forget. ‘Vigilance,’ Fire Control Towers on the beach, sunrise at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware, in black and white. Clicking on the image will open it in full screen

Everlasting: On Rehoboth Bay in Delaware at Sunset on a Very Still Evening, in Memory of My Friend Brian

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Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument. ”  - Eve Arnold      My friend Brian died at home on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 surrounded by his family and his two dogs as his sister sang to him while she and their mother held his hands. Born on the same day as my father a year before I was, Brian and I served together in the Navy on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower back in the early nineties. He was a fun-loving guy with a wicked sense of humor who enjoyed his work and I’ll remember him as a shipmate forever.     Only two years ago, Brian had a kidney removed and began treatment for the cancer at his liver that eventually took him, but not without a fight. He battled with the disease for two grueling years. Like so many cancer patients, his treatment plan had many ups and downs but the recent news that the doctors warne

Within the Mechanism: A Bridge as a Metaphor in a Time of Chaos

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Anyone can shoot chaos. But the most perceptive photographers can make compelling pictures out of uninteresting moments. ”  - Alex Tehrani     As we grapple with the consequences of the events in Afghanistan, it would seem clear we have disengaged with our many partners in the far mountains and deserts. By leaving behind so many in such chaos, what example have set? What will future partners think of our promises? It's so important to be clear about our mission, accomplish it, and return unentangled. But there is still much we must remain engaged with, interested in, committed to. Let's never lose the meaning of our collective sacrifice, the purpose of our enterprise. We must remain with an open hand outstretched, not a clenched fist cocked back. We need to keep the bridges we've built in good repair and constantly used. As I wrote in my post on August 7, 2021...      What a glorious thing is a bridge, a link betw

Evening Star: The Value of Kindness

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera. ”  - Dorothea Lange     I get so discouraged sometimes from the pervasive divisiveness in our society. People so often seem to look at other people as obstacles...      Other cars going too slowly, too many others on the sidewalk or in the stores, wearing masks to slow the spread of the pandemic virus (the virus is real) or not wearing masks because of personal freedom (it's a conspiracy), vaccinations or no vaccinations, too much traffic, not enough workers, impatience at the restaurant or in line at the gas station or when waiting for a government service. Not to mention how everything is political nowadays. The list of ways other people bother us is seemingly endless. And yet, as I wrote in my post on July 24, 2021...      Other people aren’t problems; they’re fellow people with their own thoughts, fears, and concerns trying to live their lives. Just like you

Depth Charge: An Ode to a Jetty

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Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us. ”  - Ralph Hattersley     I felt inspired to write a poem extolling the faithful service rendered by the easily unnoticed jetties that protect our beaches. As I wrote in my post on July 17, 2021... Depth Charge Such eagerness released by the invisible gusty force, the sea builds with the breeze an expectant hope. Whose power climbs as the ocean follows its course, ‘Til its water begets foamy waves up the shoreline’s fine slope. Tumult and tossed, the surf does froth and boil, And would rise up and carry away the coast’s sandy glitter. But for the old barrier, wood and joining steel to spoil, that counters the mighty curl of the seaside heavy hitter. Apricot waves and lathered salty spray deflected, our faithful breakwater’s purpose writ large. The early morning surf diverted, the beachfront protected, a fan of sunrise mist geysers from our stalwart jetty ‘Depth

Oblique Beach: A Fascination with Lines

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs. ”  - Wayne Miller     What makes any particular photograph interesting? That probably depends on who the viewer is but for the most part, it's about subject, composition, and light. Answer these questions: What is the focal point of the image? Is it composed well? And is there good lighting?      It's quite common to see photographs of a pretty scene that lack an obvious subject. Grand vistas often awe us in person but lack pizzazz as a photograph. Why? The image has no subject. The subject is where the viewer can rest their eyes as they look around the image. It's likely the main point of the image. Make sure your images have a subject!     Let's address lighting. This is tricky because it's very subjective. Harsh lighting from a noon summer sun casts vertical shadows and makes an image look flat. However, black and white images in these conditions

Sunset Moon Over the Horizon: Our Nation's Birthday

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography can light up darkness and expose ignorance. ”  - Lewis Hine     Happy Birthday, America! Even if the actual date is debatable. From my post on July 3, 2021... So What Happened on July 3, 1776?      John Adams, the future second President, was serving as a member of the Massachusetts delegation to the Second Continental Congress. Meeting for over a year in the Pennsylvania State House, the delegates from the thirteen colonies had been working on reconciliation with the British crown. King George III ignored the petition and declared the colonies to be in revolt. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution for independence from England, asserting, "that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states..." It was at this point a committee of five members, including John Adams, was assigned to draft a formal document of independence. On July 2, 1776, Lee's

Tide's Conquest: The Health of Our Waterways

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. ”  - Ansel Adams     The arrival of hot weather signals the start of the crowded tourist season at the Delaware beaches. For many, it's a Faustian bargain between the money the vacationers freely spend at the local restaurants and shops and the hard-to-find parking in-town and the traffic jams out on Coastal Highway. For the fish who spawn and live in the inland bays, streams, and canals, the high temperatures make any poor water quality issues worse by rapidly consuming dissolved oxygen levels. Fish kills of hundreds of thousands of mostly juvenile fish are often the the unfortunate consequence.     Another contributing problem is the algae blooms that feed on excess fertilizer in the water, consuming even more oxygen and blocking sunlight from reaching as deep as it should. Runoff from commercial and residential properties are a major part of the problem and

Trace of Ebb Tide: Nature's Fingerprints

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it. ”  - Morley Baer     Clues. I'm always looking for clues, the little details that reveal the bigger picture. What can I find that shows me that something happened where I'm standing? Animal tracks, wind-bent tree trunks, matted grasses, and repeated patterns in the sand are all different clues to what an area is all about, what lives there, and what might happen next. I love this type of exploration and how it makes my photography such a personal, memorable experience. As I wrote in my post on May 8, 2021...           As our beautiful rotating Earth travels along it elliptical orbit, the sun and the moon exert their varying gravity on our planet. This celestial ballet raises and lowers the water level of our seas and oceans. In turn, water either rushes into or out of our coastal inlets, helping

Preemergence: The Just Before

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography means painting with light. And that's what you do. You paint a picture only by adding light to the things you see. ”  - Katja Michael     I have found throughout my life that the excited anticipation of some future event is often as pleasurable as the event itself. Knowing about a planned trip to Disney World, for example, is just as joyful as being there. Years ago, when I still enjoyed professional American football, the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl with the constant television hype, analysis, and player interviews were often more fun than the game itself which was usually a blowout. As I've grown older, I've found myself much more in tune with the changes that happen with the passing of the seasons. I especially love Spring with its inherent sense of rebirth, especially at the ocean shore. As I wrote in my post on May 1, 2021...      If you’re like me, you appreciate that point in time just be

Muffled Horizon: Ode to the Bay

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography has nothing to do with cameras. ”  - Lucas Gentry     I remain, as always, in awe of the beauty and vigor and peacefulness of our inland bays. As I wrote in my post on April 24, 2021...      Sometimes, speaking as a photographer, thick cloud cover at the evening western horizon can mean there will be a lack of light in the scene resulting in a muted photograph. Waiting on the shore for this image to come together, I feared it might not work out, as it so often doesn't. Photography is a craft of vision, opportunity, patience, perseverance while being tired and uncomfortable, and a wee pinch of luck.      In 'Muffled Horizon,' I found some good fortune because those clouds instead really turned up the volume on the color and texture in the high sky and left a beautiful band of blue across the scene which is mirrored in the gently rippled water of Rehoboth Bay. Enjoy the view as I share some words I love

Garden of the Tigers: Springtime in Lewes

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's or thing's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt. ”  - Susan Sontag      There's a magic beauty during springtime in coastal Delaware. Of course the warming weather starts to spark dreams of lazy days on the beach listening to the surf and reading a good book. But the beach towns at the Delaware shore are more than just suntans, sand, and soft serve. Do you smell the perfume in the air as you stroll the sidewalks, especially in Bethany Beach and Lewes? That's the sweet floral smell of lower Delaware in spring!     Best known for the vibrant tulip gardens in both its community and private gardens, Lewes is the coastal town probably most associated with kaleidoscopic blooming triumph. Even the Savannah Road bascule

Evening on South Salisbury Street: A Posterior View of Raleigh

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ You've got to push yourself harder. You've got to start looking for pictures nobody else could take. You've got to take the tools you have and probe deeper. ”  - William Albert Allard      Changing locations is always tricky for a photographer because you don't want to confuse your audience. What kind of photographer are you? That begs the question... what kind of photographer am I? I love all types of photography, from studio work to street scenes to urban and rural studies to classic landscapes including mountains, trees, and beaches. I'll capture it all, and I try to do it with my point of view front and center.      Still, with the way photographs are displayed on an Instagram feed in a tile of images, a consistent look in the feed is the holy grail for many of my fellow photogs and I will never have that. What you will see is my work will always be high quality with the subject held in the fondest reg

Evening Blaze at New and Coastal: A Lesson in Hubris?

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Only photograph what you love. ”  - Tim Walker      For whatever reason, this was my worst performing social media post so far. Perhaps the image was weak. Although I love this view of wild beach grasses glowing with golden hour sunlight, maybe it just didn't resonate with my audience. Personally, I am tired of seeing the same basic photograph of the beach at sunrise or sunset. They're beautiful, of course, and some photographers capture them better than others, but the look is repeated ad nauseum. I am trying to move my audience to something fresher... something unexpected. And perhaps by doing so, I am falling prey to my own pride.     Because maybe my images just aren't what my audience wants to see, good intentions and good writing be damned. Or maybe the photography I'm currently producing isn't that good, no matter what I think. The new editor of Sidetracked magazine, Alex Roddie, wrote in a recent

Steaming South: Respect for our Merchant Mariners

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography is not about cameras, gadgets, and gizmos. Photography is about photographers. A camera didn't make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel. ”  - Peter Adams     The world watched in amazement this past week as global shipping was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The ongoing challenge at the Pacific Ocean docks of the United States continues with more than twenty-five cargo ships remaining backed up waiting for a berth to unload their goods, the result of the COVID-caused labor shortage and a surge in orders from American companies anticipating a big increase in consumer spending as the pandemic presumably winds down.      Far more interesting to the casual observer, though, was the drama in the Suez Canal. The cargo ship Ever Given of the Evergreen Line ended up stuck with its bow jammed into the sand on a particularly narrow stretch of the canal. With low tides and heavy to

Quiescence: A Party Place in Repose

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Taking a picture is like giving a piece of your soul away. You allow other people to see the world through your eyes. ”  - Katja Michael     A temporary cessation of activity is how the dictionary defines the word quiescence , and I think that's an apt description of the lower Delaware town of Dewey Beach in mid-winter. Frenetic with youthful energy in the summer with packed hotel rooms, entertainment for every taste, and an endless array of water sports on the bayside and sandy fun on the ocean, Dewey Beach transform into a very quiet, tranquil version of itself in winter. No less beautiful, but far more peaceful...      I was reminded that these empty piers "will start filling up soon" as springtime ushers in the promise of warmer weather. So I say we should enjoy the break while we can. The throngs of happy tourists and endless brake lights on Coastal Highway will be back soon enough. As I wrote in my post o

Icon: In Honor of Charles W. Cullen

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph. ”  - Andre Kertesz      Few man-made structures stand the test of time in both beauty and function. It's r are when design and engineering unite in perfect synergy. When I think of beautiful architecture, places like the Taj Mahal, the Chrysler Building, the Sydney Opera House, and the Golden Gate Bridge come to mind. Locations like these have not only enduring beauty but also perfect function.     The Taj Mahal was built as a glorious tomb for the wife of a heartbroken Indian emperor. It is resplendent like no other. For admirers of Art Deco, the Chrysler Building in east-central Manhattan is unequaled in elegance. Sydney's Opera House, with its famous silhouette of soaring "shells," is an archetype of modern expressionistic design and a symbol for Australia's most populous city.      And the Golden Gate Bridge which spans the mouth of San Fran

The End of the Day: A Vision of Crossing Over?

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  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography is a language more universal than words. ”  - Minor White      February is the month, too many years ago now, that my father passed away. And in March only a few years later, my mom suddenly left us. The sense of loss and agony of missing them is overwhelming sometimes but thankfully, those feelings are much rarer than they used to be. Still, even now I often find myself with a question about our family or an old recipe where my first instinct is to call my parents... it's hard, as anyone who has lost a close family member or friend knows all too well.      Many of us hope those gone before are in a better place and perhaps more at peace than they were while here, especially if the end of their lives involved failing health and pain. I hope everyone's final moments between here and there are peaceful and filled with embracing warmth and comfort. As I wrote in my post on March 6, 2021...      Recently, I&#