Photography has been a hobby of mine since I received my first camera, a Kodak Disc 4000, as a gift when I was a kid. While obtaining my bachelor’s degree at Temple University, I took a course in photography as part of my journalism major. This class taught me how to use a manual camera, introduced me to the elements of photo composition and photojournalism, and how to develop and print photographs. I started the class using a Kodak Retinette, a 35 mm viewfinder camera, and then purchased a Pentax K1000, a 35 mm single lens reflex camera. I used the K1000 for years until digital cameras made it obsolete. After that, I relied on point and shoot digital and cell phone cameras.
A New Camera in Winter
After moving to Waterford the week before Thanksgiving in 2019, I spent the holidays settling into my new house. I purchased a Nikon D3500 digital single-lens reflex camera during the post-Christmas sales. I tried it for the first time in January 2020 at Franklin Parker Preserve using an 18 – 55 mm lens.
The next month I took my new DSLR to Brigantine and snapped photos at the North Beach seawall. It was a grey, overcast day, but the shots I liked the best included an American Herring Gull, a detail of the Spirit of Brigantine, aka the Seashell Sculpture, by Gregg Knight, and some scenic pictures of dunes and driftwood.
By the next month, the pandemic forced everyone into lockdown. Working from home gave me little opportunity to take photos until May when I began spending some socially distanced time outdoors.
Spring Fishing at Goshen Pond and Atco Lake
A friend recommended Goshen Pond as a subject. I visited it at sunset on an early May evening. Several people fished in the cool blue water. The sun set behind clouds that reminded me of mountains, illuminating a smaller pond off the main pond near a beaver dam.
Later in May, I stopped at Atco Lake for another sunset photo op. A fisherman casted a line from his kayak as the sun went down. Bullfrogs hid in the foliage growing in and around the shallow water along the lake’s edge, making their presence known with croaking and the sound of splashing.
Summer in Shamong
When summer rolled around, I began taking my DSLR to the farm where I board my horse in Shamong. With summertime came insects, including an unusual sight: triple piggybacking wasps! Genus Tachytes was my best guess as to what kind. A pair of dragonflies hovered near one of the farm’s ponds. According to someone more knowledgeable about dragonflies than myself, the darker blue one was a Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta) and the lighter blue one was an Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis). A green frog floated languidly in the same pond. I waited for it to make a grab for a dragonfly, but it remained motionless, seemingly content.
I encountered a doe and her fawn near the farm’s jump course and on another day, took my first picture of a buck, antlers still in velvet, relaxing with a small herd of does and fawns. When they figured out a human was nearby, they took off running.
Charm of the Goldenrod
I was born in autumn, which might be one reason it’s my favorite season. In a wilderness dominated by pine trees, I was pleasantly surprised by the varied and spectacular display of fall color. The wild goldenrod blooming near my house kept an assortment of pollinators busy and reminded me of the stanza of a poem I liked.
A haze on the far horizon,
Each in His Own Tongue by William Herbert Carruth
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the goldenrod —
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.
I hiked around Atsion Lake with Barbara Solem, author of Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. We spotted something scurrying across the trail and discovered a male Fence Lizard trying hard to be invisible while clinging to a tree. I snuck in a few shots through some space in the leaves.
Later that Fall, Barbara was kind enough to introduce me to Batsto Village with a guided tour. I visited again when the fall color was at its peak and was able to photograph some autumn glory in the village and along Batsto Lake. It was a clear, calm day, and the lake was like a mirror.
Autumn is the season for White Tail romance, otherwise known as the Rut. I photographed a buck as he pursued a doe into a pasture, lost her, and then cleared the fence to escape back into the woods.
Franklin Parker Preserve, where I started my DSLR journey in 2020, is renowned for its sunsets, and I visited several times. On the weekend after Thanksgiving, an eight point buck and I surprised each other on the trail near the Chatsworth Road parking lot.
Beach and Barrens 