Photo:Engage

  “ Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. ”  - Albert Einstein     Sometimes, I think my more specific posts extolling the beauty and history of a certain location turns off part of my audience because perhaps they think they cannot relate to a place they don't personally know. But my sincere hope is that my words and images inspires you to visit the wild places close to your home and to cherish them such that you'll make choices that protect them. Love the outdoors near you! As I wrote in my post on November 5, 2022...      Gordons Pond wasn’t always just the amazing and beautiful mix of water and trees, grass and birds that we get to enjoy nowadays. In days long gone by, when European settlers first were looking around and wondering how to keep their food preserved, areas close to the sea were choice locations for getting their all important salt.       What is now Gordons Pond began as a manma...

“ The world moves fast, changing everything around us with each new day. Photography is a gift that can keep us in a moment forever, blissfully eternal. ”  - Ali Novak     Our world does move fast, with events sometimes overwhelming us with their speed and ferocity and urgency. So much is happening that it's all too easy to lose focus of what it is we want to do with our limited time. The events of the world outside ourselves pierce our attention and compete for our emotional energy, but are usually well outside of what we can actually control. So I ask you to think about what you're focused on, for that will let you know what you truly value.  As I wrote in my post on February 5, 2022...      Taking the liberty of translating into a modern voice the timeless wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, who was both emperor of ancient Rome and a moral man, he wrote in his personal journal the following lesson about focus:      “Concentrate every minute on...

  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 t...

  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 resi...

  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 tur...

  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 lik...

  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 ma...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ The camera has always been a guide, and it's allowed me to see things and focus on things that maybe an average person wouldn't even notice. ”  - Don Chadwick      What peculiar names we give to places! Who could imagine a head or a gut being terms for an area of water? How can so many rivers and creeks in the Northeast end with the malevolent sounding kill ? (Hint: There's nothing violent to worry about; it's from the Dutch colonists who originally explored there.) Did you know an inlet is also known as an arm of the sea ? Some of these terms are for similar types of water features but depend upon their size... for instance, “you can step over a brook , jump over a creek , wade across a stream and swim across a river " as an old saying goes.      Where I grew up, a creek was actually called a crick , at least by my mom. In Scotland, a large stream is a burn , thu...

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like. ”  - David Alan Harvey      My friend David Benton remarked, " This has your unique stamp of composition. No one else would have seen that." This post blew up compared to most of mine. I received more than 500 likes on one Facebook group (my first photograph ever to do so) and hundreds more in my other social media and what's even better are the many comments where people described how much they too enjoyed the blessings of the bays.      Lower Delaware is lucky to have Indian River Bay and Rehoboth Bay, as are the many animals and plants that live in these remarkable estuaries. People also commented how they worried that the bays may become ruined from overdevelopment and their concerns are valid; many new homes and condos are being built on the bay shore as people flock to the area seeking waterfront living....

  Photo:Engage     a photography blog you  want  to follow “ Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. ”  - Dorothea Lange      Another one of my pleading missives about the dunes: please stay off them while enjoying the beach. The fences and warning signs are there to protect the delicate sea grasses which keep the dunes intact despite the steady ocean breeze and powerful waves. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people of all ages ignoring the signs, breaching the fence, and traipsing all over or lounging on the dunes, often for a group snapshot or selfie. Unleashed dogs are frequently the culprits of grass damage because their owners won't follow the law.      We must protect our beaches and natural resources. Everyone of us needs to be a steward of the environment so we and our posterity can continue to enjoy its many blessings. Working together is the only way forward. While it us...