Winter at the yacht club.Bright sun and blowing snow create at winter scene at the Island Heights Yacht Club. Many people associate photography with bright summer sunshine, family get-togethers, and here at the Shore, documenting time spent on the water or a beach. But now it's winter, and the sun in often in short supply, the beach is cold, and the water too cold to enjoy--unless you are a polar bear.

This is still a great time to use your camera to shoot what you see. If it is snowing, there are  many scenes that make a great image with a bit of white. The vegetation is not green, but bear branches or dead leaves can make an effective image. There is also a fair amount of wildlife around--the gulls are always here, as are migratory birds such as bufflehead ducks, and the foxes in Island Beach State Park (but don't feed them).  This year and last we have also had visits from the great "Snowy Owl"-- an awesome raptor. And, of course, truly magnificent sunrises and sunsets, due to the low angle of the sun and the almost continuous presence of clouds. If the weather stays cold for a while and the rivers and bays freeze, we sometimes get very lucky and have iceboats screaming across the frozen water. Fun!

These things will be my main subjects for the next few weeks, as they have been in past years.  To see what winter scenes I have captured, just check the galleries on this site. Enjoy, stay warm and thanks in advance for looking!