the rix mix

An old friend showed up from northern California on Tuesday with a rental car & an urge to see the Atlantic. So we went to the nearest ocean beach, Sandy Hook. The Twin Lights park was open but the lighthouse itself unfortunately closed. The weather was steadily clearing after a quick storm, the high tide showing the recent solstice.

These were some of the most beautiful waves I'd ever seen. Each had individuality. They weren't enormous, but they rarely crowded upon each other, & were neither orderly & predictable nor sloppily turbulent. The surf churned up foam yet the water was clear as it receded. It was luck to have chosen a particular parking lot at Sandy Hook that accessed a stretch of beach where waves were breaking just so on the steep beach shelf at this stage of the high tide, which had been falling for maybe an hour. Coming back after spending some time on the bayside, the breakers had moved offshore, settled down neatly, & were attracting dozens of surfers.

To have general interest, a photo needs to show a wave breaking on something on other than sand: a person, a house, a pier, a boat, a jetty, a lighthouse. That thing either resists the wave through strength or deflection, or it does not. The photo then has proportion & "drama." Simple photos of breakers are usually interesting only to people who study them for one reason or another, or as souvenirs.

Labels: jersey shore, sandy hook