Just Sky

Today has been a little overcast and I have been finishing up the opening chores around the beach house. But I took a break to look at a few more images I made while on Slaughter Beach waiting for the horseshoe crabs to come ashore. The sky was very pretty with gentle clouds drifting driven by the north east wind and as the sun began to set the colors and beauty of the sky caught my eye.......so I shot some pictures with just the sky.

Slaughter Beach, Horseshoe Crab Rituals

Yesterday after doing some work around the beach house I headed north to meet Annette, Don and Chuck for dinner and then on to Slaughter Beach for some photo fun! I never get tired of photographing at the beach, there is always something and there is always changing scenerey. The changing tides, the changing atmosphere, and the changing patterns of life at the shore always offer something if you go out and look! Don exclaimed how very different the scene on Slaughter Beach was after dinner, as opposed to the scene he saw in the late afternoon...and that is the magic of the shore! It is never the same! We walked out on to the beach among the dead, dying and egg laying crabs as the surf rolled and the northeast wind whipped. The surf was unusually rough on the bay due to the shift in the wind and a cold front that was blowing in, so the gentle creeping onto the shore the crabs usually do was not to be seen. Instead the crabs were being tossed and broken apart from their ritualistic coupling and dragging to shore. A few  other photographers showed up for the event, it was nice to met Jose Hernandez who had traveled from Virginia, but after looking at his blog, travel is no problem for Jose! I also met another photograher who was able to grab, what I believe was several Red Knots in flight. I was just looking around as I saw the group pass and thought they were Red Knots as the light lit their bellies and the pointed wings made me think they were. So I watched them fly by, but missed a shot......I think I was in the zen mode just looking at the scene.. Later he showed me his shot and it was awesome, and I am pretty sure they were the endangered Red Knot, after seeing his shot. It was a pretty cold shore line and we shot what was there until the moon rose. We were cold and wet from the heavy dew in the air, as was our gear. After saying our goodbyes, I drove back to the beach house while Annette, Don and Chuck headed back to Baltimore. I processed a few images  last night, but did not post any.......they needed to ferment. When I was waking up this morning, I was thinking about the shot I really liked the most, a pan of Sanderlings in flight, juxtaposed a crab shot. Then I thought about the triptychs I had been seeing some other photogs post like John Barclay on his site and Teri Lou Dantzler had recently posted on Facebook; but I wanted more..to tell a story...and Don had mentioned a poster that Bombay Hook had been giving away with shore birds depicted..so I thought that's it a poster of images!......You just never know where an idea generates so here is my idea of the evening I had last night on Slaughter Beach..........

Another Day at The Beach!

Been busy doing lots of work around here. No photos for a couple days...However, tonight I am meeting Annette, Don and Chuck on The Shores of the Delaware Bay, awaiting the rise of the full moon and the march of horseshoe crabs to shore for the annual egg laying ritual..should be fun...these are a few I processed from the foggy days in the beginning of the week.....

Another Foggy Day

Had to do some owner chores today, trim the big Cedar hedge in front of the house, and clean up the porches from the construction work I had done, and begin to paint the front room walls and baseboard from water and mildew damage over the winter. After getting some things done I had a list for Lowes...so I headed up to Lewes again for some paint, a sander, some screws, misc stuff and some new blinds for the screened in porches. It was  clearing when I left but as soon as I got to Rehoboth the fog was thick again. When I left Lowes, I went on to Prime Hook. I have never seen the Marsh all yellow like it was and it appeared as if some of the regular vegetation was not growing anymore. There were only a few Canadian geese there and no marsh birds, pretty strange, but the landscape was very interesting in the fog so I made some images. Tomorrow I will have to do some chores...maybe I can get out to the beach here tomorrow for a few quick beach shots.

Horseshoe Crabs

Chuck asked about the crabs as a result of my post yesterday, and I thought I would share a few more images. The Horseshoe Crab is quite a unique species on the planet and has survived 250 million years! Imagine that and with no food for one year, they can still make it..truly one of natures most amazing, and ugly, I might add, beings. So yes every year at this time it is mating season, and it is truly an amazing event when thousands creep ashore on the full moon at the end of May, on the shores of the Delaware Bay. The other amazing benefit is the arrival of the migrating birds that feed on the green eggs; an amazing symbiotic relationship.  If you have never seen this spectacle, it is worth the trip, and I am hoping to meet a few friends this week to see the spectacle in full swing, at night as they emerge from the water.........These were a few early arrivals....

Along the Shore

Today I took my time getting out of the house. There was a sea mist in the air creating quite an atmosphere. I was lucky and one of the local boat marinas had its gate up and I drove in and asked if I could make some images, they were very nice and gave me the go ahead. I met Annette and Don at Meding & Son for lunch and then we headed north to see if we could find some horse shoe crabs, laying eggs along the shore.

So I made some shots of little boats.

and a Pier Swipe

and a cool farm.......

and some horseshoe crabs along Port Mahon Road....

as well as some migrating shore birds......

and the shore line along Port Mahon Road.

It was a good day!

Beach Time

Today after closing up the house I headed for the beach. Its a tradition to be here the week before Memorial Day, getting ready for the season and doing some final maintenance...before the rental season starts. It was an easy drive down, thanks goodness. I arrived just as the sun was setting and I made it out to the beach for a few shots with the single glass optic from Lensbaby fitted with the wide angle lens.

These were just some grab shots...as the light faded...I loved the big curve of the horizon..kinda playful...

On Gardens and belonging

During my working years in retail, I had a neighbor, Karolyn, who would always say to me I should join the Garden Club. Well I was always sooooo busy I didn't feel like I could make a commitment and if I can't contribute,  then I don't feel like I should join...so when I retired from Macy's, she asked me again, and I said well why not, I should be able to do that now.
So last year as Vice President of the Garden Club, I wrote a grant and received $500.00 from the State to enhance the space that was acquired from Black and Decker by Neighbor Space Land Trust in conjunction with the garden club. This space had been informally gardened by the neighborhood women for decades and planted randomly with memorial plantings.

Neighborhood open space is an asset in older established neighborhoods making them livable and distinctive. However, many neighborhoods within Baltimore County Community Conservation Areas are deficient of open space. These neighborhoods were typically developed prior to open space requirements and have less protected open space when compared to newer developments. In addition, many of these neighborhoods are essentially built-out with few remaining undeveloped parcels of land providing green open space. These remaining undeveloped parcels are being threatened by infill development, which will eliminate the green open space it once provided. Some of these parcels should be preserved as neighborhood open space to help keep communities thriving.
Until now, there have been no programs to preserve small parcels in Community Conservation Areas, where 75 percent of the County's population lives. As a result, Neighbor Space of Baltimore County was formed to help provide open spaces in Community Conservation Areas.

Many women and one boy scout and some of his troop members worked very hard to dig and plan the garden space in conjunction with a highway planner for the planting needs.  Another neighbor donated the pebbles in the walkway and we hauled truck loads of mulch from the county recycle location.  I also wrote a letter to a local politico asking that the county curb the area, and they did this year. So now we are enjoying the beauty of the space that was created with lots of community involvement and dedicated women. This Garden has history as it was started in memory of community women who helped over the years make Greenbrier a great place to live, and now it's just a little better, thanks to the members of the current Greenbrier Garden Club!  So this year as the President, we have to maintain and enhance the community garden, as a garden is always a work in progress.

A couple days ago, I made a few images of the garden and mine....with the Lensbaby soft focus..and a few straight shots too.

 

The Last of New York, with the Lensbaby!

Today, I made a new print for a client to add to her collection..she has a very nice assortment of my flower and close up nature prints. I also went to see my ailing Uncle...for a little while.

Just put some new lectures and workshops up on the blog and site, and received a very nice e-mail from Nancy, who came up to Baltimore to shoot with me in the early spring, letting me know that two of the images she created that day won a place in her camera club's competition. That was very nice to know!

I bought some new hike boots from REI and I bought some roses to plant in the garden. Surprise, I took no pictures today.
So here are the last of the New York day trip series shot with various Lensbaby optics..on the way to the pick up point we stopped and had a great NY sandwich of corned beef on rye at Juniors, a real NY tradition, but we were too full for the cheesecake! Homeward Bound and Porters were shot through the bus window as it began to rain.

New York City, through the Lensbaby Pinhole and Plastic Optic

While at lunch on Friday in the Brooklyn Diner, I changed the optic to the Pinhole. Since there is very little light that enters I made a couple shots at the table just goofing around and one or two shots outside before switching to the plastic optic. I just enjoyed the linear shapes the buildings carve against the sky, what little you can see from the ground.

Then while at MOMA, I made a few plastic optic shots.....

New York City through the Lensbaby Plastic Optic

After enjoying breakfast, or brunch, on Friday, the rain subsided, and we headed back out into Times Square. I started making images with the Lensbaby Plastic Optic....fitted with a 2.6 aperture insert.....and on our path north to MOMA. I enjoyed the walk and while waiting outside of MOMA I made a few more images. The tour through the gallery of Cartier-Bresson's work was terrific.