Whenever I have a few spare minutes, I take a camera and long lens to different areas of the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Barnegat, NJ. Forsythe is a protected nature sanctuary that spans 48,000 acres of New Jersey's coastal habitats. A true treasure. And, it never fails that I can see any number of egrets, ibis, herons, and more. I've even seen storks, which is a rare sighting in NJ. Today was no exception. Here are just a couple of the nearly 200 shots I captured sp

My wife and I, along with a couple of friends, recently went to Atlantic City for the Soar and Shore Air Show. Perfect weather. We spent several hours on the beach watching the progression of planes, from vintage aircraft to modern fighter jets, as they performed their seemingly impossible aerobatics. Really stunning. At the begining of the show, two Coast Guard helicopters with divers demontrated air-sea rescues. After the demonstration, two Coasties emerged from the surf in

I think I've been looking at birds far too long. Going through recent snashots taken in Florida I found this funny pair. I guess they're looking in opposite directions so they can discover anyone or any animal approaching them from any angle... like a guy with a camera. But it does look like a two-headed bird.

It's been said that putting a purple martin house in your backyard is like installing a neighborhood. They gather and perform aerobatics to snatch up flying insects for meals. Fun to watch! And they can be very noisy. This flock was seen at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida over the winter. A crazy flurry of activity in the neighborhood.

Catching early morning light or taking pictures on clear, blue sky days can greatly increase your chance of capturing a beautiful photo or two. What about the rest of the time? Which lately seems to be most of the time. I challenge myself on the bleakest of days to find the beauty. It's always there, there's just different light. I captured these photos at the mouth of Forked River on Barnegat Bay. As you can see, it was wall to wall clouds. Dark, rainy, just a bit dreary. So

I frequently grab a camera and a couple of lenses to head out for a long scenic walk. Whether I'm in New Jersey or South Florida, I'm lucky to be near fantastic wildlife refuges. Both Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach and the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge up and down the NJ coast are treasures. A casual walk on any day will be a show of all kinds of bird activity, fish schooling, and at Wakodahatchee, alligators creeping. Certainly getting your steps is impo

There are approximately 60 drawbridges in Florida's stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway, the inland passage that boaters will navigate to travel US coastal waters. To do so means timing your arrival for the opening of the bridges if your vessel is too tall to clear the span. Each bridge has a tender who manages the bridge openings for traveling vessels. And each bridge has its unique version of the operator's booth. I usually take a picture when I'm near one of them, they ea

One day while going through cabinets in my office I stumbled upon a box of older manual Nikon lenses that I had not seen in a while. They were flea market finds from years ago. Including 24, 50 and 135mm lenses from the late 1960s to the early 70s. It doesn't take much to distract me. I quickly bolted the 24mm lens to a camera and wandered around the house taking pictures to remind myself of how beautiful these lenses can render an image. The shot above is a sea shell arrange

You can look in the same direction of the sky at the same time every evening, and it's amazing how different the sunset's moods can appear. From a dark brilliant striped sky, like the snapshot above, to the soothing wispy, cotton candy watercolor below. It's always a treat, but especially on the water!

I recently went to the Boynton Inlet in Florida. It was a prime morning for grabbing images of pelicans. They were all over the place, diving into the inlet snatching baitfish and hanging on the wall waiting for the next school to swim by on the incoming tide. For pelicans, they were moving pretty fast, which made it challenging to take pictures of them. But I got a few good ones.