Falling in love with photography and science on America's first National Seashore
Happy National Park Week!
As a traveler and hiker, I often get asked if I have a goal to visit all of the National Parks. I’m pretty certain the person asking means the 63 National Parks not the 400+ other units recognized by the National Park System. But to me, how could I visit only parks, when there are also seashores, waterways, monuments, recreation areas….. etc. But to answer… sure, I’d love to. Right now I’m 19/63 so I had better get busy.
My heart lives on a National Seashore called Cape Hatteras. America’s first National Seashore, Cape Hatteras includes Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands among North Carolina’s Outer Banks. I began traveling to Hatteras with my family as a child, my dad reliving his days of surfing at dawn arriving with just enough money for gas to get back and a hot dog to fuel the ride. Years later, Forrest and I found our way to the island in search of wind as he pursued a new sport called kitesurfing. Around the same time, I began tinkering with manual mode on my camera and was working on learning how to properly expose, how shutter speed freezes motion, and that birds do not pose on command.
I began waking before first light, because in the middle of the Atlantic it’s always earlier than they say. I started to study tides and weather patterns, migrations, and wave movement. Through the viewfinder of my camera, I started seeing the earth in a whole way. I found myself pulled towards science books and nature documentaries. In my thirties, I fell in love with a subject that I had spent my high school and college years trying to avoid.
While exploring a National Seashore with a camera around my neck, I fell in love with the world more deeply. As I consider celebrating National Park Week, I realize that I have learned far more about nature, science, and honestly… myself, through the important work of the National Park Service.
If you’d like to photograph and explore America’s first National Seashore, I invite you to join me at The Saltwater Retreat.
WOW. Every single one of your photos is spectacular. You seem to have found the romantic side of America.