Photo:Engage

  “ Visual ideas combined with technology combined with personal interpretation equals photography. Each must hold its own; if it doesn't, the thing collapses."   - Arnold Newman     If you find life and its many challenges difficult to keep organized and some things are out of whack, you're not alone. Staying focused with minimal distraction is a key life goal for many of us. How can we stay balanced, and not in danger of falling like the proverbial fiddler on the roof?      Some would suggest that we prioritize our activities, putting our first things first as author Stephen Covey taught. We should integrate all aspects of our life, meaning to rid ourselves of that which is incongruent with our principles and goals. We should set goals for ourselves, so we have the beneficial stress of something to work for, and a reason to celebrate when we succeed. We should ensure we practice self care, for a faulty body has a hard time having a sound mi...

  “ I often wished I could capture and share the sudden moments of beauty that I would see around me."   - Caroline Mueller     It's been put many ways but we don't help our spouses as a nice-to-do, occasional thing. A marriage, or relationship, is best built as a complete partnership where both people, or birds in this case, work together selflessly for the good of the relationship or family. Nobody is doing a favor as both parties act without ego to help further the goals of the unit. As I wrote in my post on May 13, 2023...      Welcome back to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge where the graceful great white egrets roost and rule. Both male and female egrets help with nest building. This elegant bird posed perfectly for me with a small stick in their beak as they prepared to fly back towards the rookery. I watched the whole congregation for a long time work on their nests together and care for their hatchlings. What a magnificent display and ...

  “ With photography, a new language has been created. Now for the first time, it is possible to express reality by reality. We can look at an impression as long as we wish, we can delve into it and, so to speak, renew past experiences at will. ”  - Ernst Haas     This was a wonderful time, nestled into a nook in the sand far back from the gentle surf, watching the light of the setting sun play on the sky over a beautiful corner of Hilton Head Island. It was unusually warm for the time of year, and I was dressed in sandals and shorts as I waited for the color to peak. As I passed the time on a Facetime call with my wife, three older ladies strolled up the beach towards me.      They seemed in a happy mood so I said hello and asked if they were locals. It turns out they were actually on vacation and were enjoying the warm evening with a walk in the sand. I offered to take their picture and one of them passed me their phone. Afterwards, they asked a...

  “ You just have to live and life will give you pictures. ”  - Henri Cartier-Bresson      From native American fishing grounds to colonial homestead to plantation worked by slaves to hunting retreat to wildlife refuge, Pinckney Island in lowcountry South Carolina has witnessed much in its recorded history. I shared some details in my post from January 14, 2023...      I’ve referred in my recent birding posts to the beauty of Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge. In this one, I thought I’d show you a view of the refuge itself. As you walk north along the main trail, off to your left past the marsh you will see Mackay Creek, a lovely blue sliver of water that also separates the South Carolina mainland from the island of Hilton Head. The creek is named for Alexander Mackay, the first European to call Pinckney Island his home. The island was later sold to the famed Pinckney family, one of whom was a signer of the Constitution. After the Civil War...

  “ I almost never set out to photograph a landscape, nor do I think of my camera as a mean of recording a mountain or an animal unless I absolutely need a 'record shot.' My first thought is always of light. ”  - Galen Rowell     I was surprised by how bright the birds were in the afternoon sun. Their white feathers reflected so much light that my camera consistently overexposed them unless I took great pains to meter directly on their gleaming bodies. Of course, this darkened the background behind the birds, but I think it resulted in a beautiful look to the image. See for yourself as I share what happened in my post dated December 3, 2022...  Although my visit started with a gross underestimation of how far I would be hiking in the South Carolina lowcountry heat and humidity, I was also cursed with the hubris of ignoring the large sign warning me to bring drinking water as there would be none available inside the refuge. After walking a long way...

  “ I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed. ”  - Annie Leibovitz     So there I was on the beach, early in the morning as always, to capture some landscape images in the lovely South Carolina Lowcountry sunrise light. As I wandered along, I was delighted with the sheer number of shorebirds along this still very natural bit of shoreline. Hilton Head Island has only been connected by road to the mainland since the mid-1950s, so the area is still quite impressively pristine. And, to my surprise, I came across this intrepid pair. As I wrote in my post from May 21, 2022...      You can’t imagine how delighted I was to witness these two wonderful horseshoe crabs crossing each other’s paths as they headed out to sea one sunrise morning. I watched them travel about the beach for quite awhile before they lined up for, pardon my pride, this spectacular composition.      A...