Mornings With Martha

"I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time."
-Steven Wright-


"Every morning a gazelle wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.  Every morning a lion wakes up.  It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.  It doesn't matter weather you are a lion or a gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
-African Proverb- 













One of my favorite Vineyard past-times is exploring the island.  Not large, some twenty-six miles wide and less than a quarter that size in breadth, it seems to have an endless amount to discover.  I often stumble upon a new road that leads to a new beach, or a new trail that leads to a new bluff.  I am always looking for a shot that I have not yet taken and at the same time enjoying the natural beauty of the land as I explore.  


I never "sleep in" on the Vineyard even though my time there can always be described as vacation.  I can sleep anywhere, and while on the island I try not to waste a moment.  My favorite time to explore is just after sunrise.  I head to my favorite coffee haunt, Mocha Motts, and grab a large hazelnut iced coffee and maybe a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on a freshly made everything bagel, or a toffee biscuit.  Doesn't matter, as long as I have my Motts fix I'm ready to go.  I tend to find some of the best shots when randomly exploring rather than planning and plotting a destination, so I try to find any new roads or trails that I am unfamiliar with and see if I can lose myself and in turn discover something new as I find my way back out.  

Sometimes I find that a location I'm quite familiar with takes on a very different light depending on the time of day, or year. Early morning sun casts a soft shadow on this weather-worn fence, extending a mile or so along this rocky, shell-strewn beach.  This is the inlet side of State Road.  Built on a natural land bridge separating the ocean of Nantucket Sound from this warm and calm body of water.  


A prime spot for shell fishing, here both man and bird enjoy the riches provided by the sea.   The shore is a virtual battlefield of quahog and little neck corpses.  The sea gulls pluck these and other snacks; crabs, whelk and scallop to name a few, and drop them from the sky so as to smash them open on the rocks of the beach revealing the tender trophies they seek.  The remainder litters the rocks and sand and is washed over and ground down by the tide becoming a part of the landscape. 

The Native American's would carve and polish shells just like this one to use as jewelry and even money going back hundreds if not thousands of years.  The purple hue of this "Wampum" can only be found in these waters.


My Mocha Motts, my camera, and my mornings spent with Martha... Priceless!  


I used a focal length of 70mm and brought the aperture down to f22 with a 1/30th of a second shutter speed to capture the detail of the water in the shell and the surrounding sand.