water

These pictures were taken this winter (2-02) in Maine. Nancy and I were looking for material to photograph on the coast so we went up and stayed with my sister for a couple of days in Pemiquid. On our way back we got off the turnpike and drove down US1. Its nice being able to get to the beaches without having to fight the mobs of people that usually are there in the summer. I think these pictures are at York Beach ME.
The Maine coast is very beautiful but unfortunately the only people who really get to see it are those who own the property on it. The rest of us have to be content with being squeezed into increasingly smaller bits of land and beach. Its almost impossible to really enjoy the coast anymore but I really feel sorry for the indigent people who have had to watch as the wealthy out-of-towner’s have driven up the cost of living and have made accessibility to the water more and more difficult.

This is Rye Beach NH (I think). The 2nd. picture below is a tidal pool. I’m always fascinated by ocean water as opposed to fresh. Ocean water always seems so much more alive somehow. I remember the first time I saw the ocean water up close at some beach just south of San Francisco many, many years ago. I was stunned and amazed by it. It was somehow alive, like a living thing, a plasma of living things. Not to take anything away from Lake Erie, which I grew up next to, but there’s something about fresh water that doesn’t support the same amount of life that saltwater seems to do.

I love swimming in the ocean, the Atlantic, Caribbean, Pacific, and the Gulf and they are all special moments. I think the most memorable is in Miami Beach. I used to go there every year with Nancy when she had to do trade shows at the convention center but it was always in January and it was always to cold to really enjoy the water plus for some reason there were always a lot of jelly fish. But one time she did a seminar in March and I spent most of my time in the water. Wow is all I can say. It was absolutely hypnotic. I can only say that it felt like I was swimming in a living jewel.