“Easy reading is damned hard writing.”– Nathanial Hawthorn

Photography is perhaps the easiest of the arts to take in. With a glace we get the “warm fuzzies” from an image of a gentle embrace, a wallpaper of sunflowers in spring, a snapshot of a rainbow. We connect, smile, then quickly forget. It’s become a cheap art, with even professionals being seen as hobbyist, and it’s unfair (even a little sad) that most never realizing that good images are earned. True photographers aren’t common, and they suffer for their work. They bleed. Grace, visiting relatives in Biloxi Mississippi, went on her hands and knees for these few shots, squinting one eyed though her view finder, hoping to capture beauty. I think she did.

Perhaps Grace’s favorite of the group, this image of a hermit crab cost her muddy knees and a palm cut by a metal bottle cap. “It was worth it,” she smiled, “and I really didn’t bleed all that much anyways.”

Taken in-between two of the many rainstorms that taunt the coast daily, this image was greatly enhanced by Grace who spent thirty-minutes collecting every scrap of trash for a quarter of a mile down the beach. She filled two trash bags. This “natural” shot was her reward.

Low tide, the smell of dead fish, and “yes” that is an industrial dredger in the background: this is the Gulf Coast in a nutshell.

This was an easy one. By this time, Grace had given up on trying to stay dry:)

Beach transplant…pun intended;)

This one was just an afterthought.