Photo:Engage

  “ 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...