A Day at the Beach

Salisbury Beach State Reservation is part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) system. Deb and I made a recent visit on what turned out to be a perfect weather day. While I'd been to Salisbury Beach before, I'd been to the section outside of the State Reservation. This visit was to the maintained State Park portion and we were greeted with well maintained grounds, and an overall terrific beach experience. The water was remarkably clear, and the sand was smooth with no sharp objects, making barefoot beach strolling a joyful pebble and shell free experience. I had my Olympus camera along with my 75-300 telephoto and took some shots. Kids, waves, and seagulls were my prime targets.

Red Rimmed Seagull Eye

Bird's Eye View

Gray-Brown Speckled Feathers

Wowza! Check out this woman. The Black Lives Matter pin is an important part of the ensemble.

Gorgeous Woman Spotted on Beach 

Closed Eyes Water Ballet

Stop Action Walking

Water Coating

Best Friends Embark

Boys Being Boys

Splash Landing

Pure Joy

Lines

Beach Grass

Keeping Us Safe

Copycat Seagulls

Seagull Legs and Toenails

Landing Zone

Formation Takeoff

I've collected many poor shots of birds in flight during my time as an amateur photographer. These shots are a source of great humor as they are invariably blurry and/or partially out of frame. Taking a sharp picture of a bird in flight is one of the most challenging photographic subjects in existence, especially if the bird is mid-sky, with no nearby objects, and isn't just taking off or landing. However, once in a while the camera gods shine down on me, and I get a shot off with the subject completely in frame with the focus point close to perfect. Witness the rendition below of a seagull in flight. This is a 600mm eq. shot, while panning the sky to attempt to follow the bird's flight pattern. It is still slightly blurred, likely due to the 1/800 second exposure being not quite fast enough. Image data says this subject was 90 feet away.

Seagull in Flight

All photos © 2016, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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