Water Music

It was forecasted to be a beautiful, almost balmy (low 50's?) first day of 2011. I had purposely avoided overdoing the celebrations the night before so I might head out early for the Cape. I had a couple compositions in mind involving dunes and or the ocean that I had wanted to realize for quite some time. Packing up my ready-made sculpture some Wellingtons and my camera, I headed south–about an hours drive from my house.

The amount of people in the park at so early an hour surprised me–joggers, lots of dog owners, surf fishing enthusiasts, hikers, and bird watchers–all eager to enjoy a rare temperate January day at the beach.

Lugging my sculpture in a shopping bag I made my way across the great dunes but a recent early winter snow fall made the trek a bit tricky–sand and snow. Along the trail I set up a few quick shots which apparently aroused a group of about 30 bird watchers on a nearby bluff a few hundred yards away–to the point where they eventually sent down an emissary to see what I was photographing so intently on the side of a dune (just over a fence as it is prohibited by the park to actually walk on the dunes themselves). The gentleman seemed quite amused and couldn't wait to get back to his pals and try to explain what he had learned.

Finally making it down to the beach I was happy to see it was low tide which meant I had plenty of flat areas at the waters edge to set up a shot.

Again, a lot of bemused passerby's including a few dogs who seemed a bit skittish when they saw the snakes.

One elderly couple stopped to talk and the old man wanted to know if I had a title for my composition yet.

"No," I replied.

"How about 'Water Music?'" he chuckled, quite pleased with himself.

"Hmm, Handel," I replied (the only piece I know by the composer). He seemed impressed.

"I just might," I laughed.

"Happy New Year, young man, good luck to you in 2011!" he said.

"And to the both of you too," I said, smiling and returning my attention back to the shot.

So far, so good I thought.