Not a natural find, but this was irresistible. There is so much of childhood in this simple lost plastic ring. Children carry their dreams with them everywhere they go, and I think this is especially true of play on the beach. Memories of my own daughters make me think that this ring is a bit of lost dream, perhaps a fissure in imagination.
Perhaps in this photo I can recapture a bit of what was lost for that child, and maybe conjure a small memory of our own.
An anniversary trip to Nova Scotia provided us with a number of new tide lines to visit and to photograph. The first stop was the Bay of Fundy, which experiences one of the highest vertical tidal ranges in the world. The Minas Basin, pictured here, is where the tide is most extreme. Last weekend the tidal extreme was approximately 40′ (over 12 meters).
Low tide reveals huge expanses of thick, oozy, sticky, red mud; mud that is delightful to walk in, roll in, and play in, as many children demonstrated for us.
With the permission of their parents, I photographed these two delightful mud-monsters at Five Islands Provincial Park. I think a visit to the Minas Basin is a much different experience when accompanied by children! Although far from a “still life”, these brothers were very much part of the tide line … and I think the tide line was very much a part of them, likely for a few days after. This mud does not just rinse off!
This is either a silly photo or a sad one. A little child apparently lost a toy to the tide. It returned one November day, trailing other new friends from the sea.
Fairies do not just live in the meadows, you know. For my British friends, remember Water Babies?
I rarely photograph bits of humanity on the beach, but could not resist this. A tiny bit of a child’s toy washed up with the tide reminds me of all that is wonderful about the beach for a child: sitting … Continue reading
Tide Line Still Life 