I photographed this Atlantic bottlenose dolphin along with the rest of its pod on yesterday's gray morning in Ortley Beach, where I work. I guess it took three weeks of watching dolphins and whales right in front of my face to finally convince me to break out the camera. Well, I sat for one hour and boom! Not once have I ever seen a dolphin jump out of the water like so. It just so happened that the moment I was standing on the cold shoreline holding my lens, dodging awkward stares from passing beach walkers, that these animals decided to put on a show. Coincidence? I think not. It's an omen: time to switch to ocean-mammal-only photography. Because who needs stupid birds anyway?
Okay, not really. But I do think this attempts to pull together the struggle us east coast "wildlife" photographers all share: there just isn't too much wildlife to photograph... To me the word wildlife means your elk, moose, bears, bobcats, etc. All those incredible animals you find out west or up north or elsewhere. It is truly tough to be an all around wildlife photographer around here, which is why birds become the prime subject. But hey, I'm surely not complaining!
One day when I make a trip to one of those wild places out west, perhaps I'll add the long-awaited "Wildlife" section to my portfolio. Because I truly am, more than anything, trying to expand my photographic spectrum. For now, I'll have to take it where I can get it. Perhaps the ocean will help with that. More importantly, the whales and dolphins that haven't stopped taking my breath away since I got here...