The Time of Her Life

This past Sunday my husband and I walked at a nearby beach. The day was pristine, abundant with sunshine and fresh air. Both the sky and water were the most gorgeous, sparkling hues of blue and the wind was calm. Everything felt right: a truly mellow and harmonious afternoon.

A child's joy is precious. This little girl romping through the water along the edge of Long Island Sound is feeling not only the coolness and refreshment of the water splashing her feet, but also the caress of the wind and the warmth of a giving sun. She is truly discovering life, opening her senses to the wonders of the world around her. Since I wasn't carrying a model release, I photographed her from the side and back.

As adults, we can open ourselves to our "inner child." Taking time out to visit a beautiful place with a spouse or friend is half the battle. Remember the saying "You gotta be there!"? Isn't it amazing how just "being there" can rid us of our preoccupations and open new doors of perception and experience?

Here are a few more photos. I wanted to share the beauty and drama of this setting with you. I shot 245 photos that afternoon, in less than two hours. Yes, I admit to being a camera nut! But who would trade away such joy? And with digital, I don't worry about wasting film or buying prints which I'll later have to toss.

What I like about the shot above is the sense of scale the viewer gets from the tiny figures in the background, while the mass of the boulders anchors the panorama and gives a sure sense of foreground.

Here are gulls seeming to fly in tandem. We enjoyed seeing a lot of waterfowl activity on this sand spit, and shooting in "sports mode" allowed me to capture many shots of them in flight, including a huge gull swooping around with a clam in his mouth. In spite of this wonderful feature built into my SONY Alpha D-SLR, my telephoto could do only so much to bring the scene closer. This image and the others I took of the gulls, are a little far away for my taste. I wish I had been able to get closer to the feeding frenzy and gossip session taking place on that narrow peninsula!

Here's a view looking from the wetlands out to the open water of the Sound. I was taken by the weathered look and textural features of what was apparently once a dock, and I'll upload some of my recent beach close-ups in my next post. In this saltwater marsh, the holes where crabs had dug into the sand were everywhere. In here, sheltered from the breeze over the open water, we heard bountiful birdsong and saw a great variety of scrubby trees and some varieties of pine I can't name, as well as flowering bushes. Seagulls called raucously over our heads as they made their way down the channel, following the last surge of receding tidal flow.

Here are pebbles in a tidal pool, smoothed by years of surging and receding water. Their brilliant colors are enhanced by their wetness. I'm always fascinated by rocks and pebbles for their surface qualities, mass, and the feeling of enduring presence they convey.

Here are two more images, shot at close range. Notice the gorgeous texture of these mineral encrusted boulders. The North Shore of Long Island is full of huge rocks, left by receding ice at the end of the Ice Age.

I hope you enjoyed these views from our walk on the beach. I'll post more of them next time!


All images on this site are c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my Imagekind gallery!