I spent the weekend on Smith Island to attend a community dinner and photograph the progress being made to the 'Rhodes Point Navigation Project.' Wind, rain and ice kept me indoors and off the water. Being indoors gave me an opportunity to layout chapters for 'Island Life' and plan for shooting this spring/summer. Winter 2017-2018 is turning into a long one. Most of the oystermen on Smith Island have not worked since December 23 with a handful of intrepid watermen getting only one day of work in January after the freeze that locked up most of Tangier Sound.
During a break in the weather on Saturday evening, I was able to photograph the bow of the 'Carol Ann' reflected in the channel with Allen and Morris Marsh's shanty in the background.
Potential Winter Crab Mortality - January 2018 Freeze on the Chesapeake Bay
Harsh winters can be tough on crab populations, especially on crabs burying themselves in the shallow mud bottoms that are exposed on low tides. Crabs that bury in deeper water are less susceptible to being killed by cold temperatures.
“We left a lot of juvenile crabs on the bottom last fall (2017) . I am worried about the crabs with the freeze up that we had. Tides were making low and I saw ice as thick as it was in 1976 - 1977. ”
Private Photography Workshop - Maryland Oysters - Kent Narrows
On Friday January 26th, I hosted a private photography workshop out of Grasonville, Maryland to photograph the harvesting and processing of oysters on the Chesapeake Bay - it was a cold but beautiful morning!
Rt. 50 Accident - Annapolis, Maryland - 1.24.2018
On the way to go out shooting on Wednesday morning, I got onto rt. 50 eastbound from Annapolis and started to head east towards the Sandy Point State Park. Almost immediately upon getting onto rt. 50, traffic came to a complete standstill. A pedestrian was stuck by a vehicle on the westbound side of the highway - stopping traffic in both directions for nearly two hours. Sitting in my truck with the boat in tow, I grabbed my camera as a Maryland State Police helicopter landed in the westbound lanes adjacent to where I was stuck. I managed to get pictures of the helicopter landing and the paramedics transporting the patient from the ambulance to the helicopter. Traffic in the eastbound lanes slowly started moving and I was able to make it to the boat ramp approximately 25 minutes after sunrise. Photographs from the accident were featured in a story that ran in the Capital Gazette on 1.24.2018
