A Trip to Sheldon Marsh, Part 2
August 28, 2022
The previous post was about my photographic disappointments. There aren’t any change-the-world photos in this second post about Sheldon Marsh, but I’m not embarrassed by any of them. I may be happiest when I can see an abstract composition in what I’m looking at* and when I can get close to my subject. If you have not yet looked at Mic.’s black and white photographs from our joint outing, be sure to see what he has posted at Landscapes and Other Abstractions.
*Rather than, say, try to capture the feeling of a place
1 No wonder it took tasting the water before European explorers could be really sure that the Great Lakes were not the Pacific Ocean. Lake Erie has the look of the sea.
2 Beach vegetation
3 Driftwood has the same look here as on some Florida beaches.
4
5 What washes ashore may look a bit different—no jellyfish, for example.
6 But lines indicating where the waves have reached look the same.
7 When I first saw the dark smudges in the sand, my immediate thought was that industrial pollution was responsible. Now I think they are more likely decomposed organic matter.
8
9 The shells are decidedly smaller.
10 And in general not as colorful.
11
12
13 What will I do differently the next time I visit Sheldon Marsh?
Romancing Reality 
How beautiful your photos are. Great use of light, concentrated on the essential, some meditative and all with painterly qualities.
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August 28, 2022 at 1:54 AM
Thank you, Friedrich. Because you are a painter, I’m especially pleased that you see these photographs as painterly.
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August 30, 2022 at 2:33 PM
Your comment that “No wonder it took tasting the water before European explorers could be really sure that the Great Lakes were not the Pacific Ocean” is apt. When we stayed on the west side of Lake Michigan five years ago the wind whipped up waves that could easily have passed for the ones at an ocean beach. Photographers with access to such shores are fortunate to have ready material for abstract photographs.
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August 28, 2022 at 9:18 AM
“[A]ccess to such shores” can be a problem. Ohio has allowed people to build right at the shore, leaving few places where a person can access it—unless of course you are the owner of the shore property. Two places where I can get there are closer to where I live, but they tend to be full of people and/or what are called “amenities” (boat ramps, playgrounds, etc.).
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August 30, 2022 at 2:34 PM
This is a wonderful set, Linda. I especially like your compositions of the sediment lines and sunlit pebble in #11 and the diverging wash down from the top of #12. Your question for #13 is one I ask myself. I have continued curiosity about the lakeshore in winter or at least late fall; the few times I have been there are remembered for being bitterly cold and windy, with a glaze of ice on hard surfaces. And that’s on a nice day! Still, I might try to make that a destination this year.
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August 28, 2022 at 9:55 AM
Thank you, Mic. I, too, would like to see more of Lake Erie. Maybe Old Woman Creek is next.
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August 30, 2022 at 2:34 PM
The sand photos are just outstanding, Linda. And I love the Great Lakes photo. I’m lucky I live a mile from one of them myself.
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August 28, 2022 at 2:02 PM
Thanks, Ken. You are indeed lucky to live a mile from Lake Ontario. Still, I’m keen to venture forth again, even if I have to go farther than a mile to get to my Great Lake.
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August 30, 2022 at 2:34 PM
Nicely done all around, from the personal feelings about your work to the nuggets of information about the lake (caption #1 is a perfect way to set the stage) to the images themselves. I know very little about the Great Lakes, even though I was born in Michigan and lived a few years in western NY State. I do know the east and west coasts a little, so your comparisons are helpful. I think the lovely black marks are like you said, probably organic material. But they could also be from rock that’s darker than the rock the sand is made of – near here there are places where similar marks are a deep purplish color and I think that’s the explanation – but I’m not sure. The wave lines are particularly nice, with #10, 11 & 12 standing out for me. I like the driftwood shadow in #4, the graceful marks in #7. The last photo is a lively coda, along with your question about next time. Yes, go again!!
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August 30, 2022 at 5:21 PM
Thank you, Lynn. I’m listening to a book called The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking outside the Brain, by Annie Murphy Paul. In the chapter I’m listening to now, the author talks about how writers, architects, and other artists often speak of having a dialog with the work as it progresses. I think that’s what happened when I started putting together this post. Until I put that first photo into the post, I did not think of making analogies between the Great Lakes and the oceans. I reacted to the photo at that point, and then the analogy just kept working. It felt really cool. I take your point about darker rock, but there isn’t any darker rock around there. At least I don’t think so; it’s certainly not above ground. If/when I do go back to Sheldon Marsh you and 700 or so other people will be among the first to know. 😉
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August 31, 2022 at 2:29 PM
That’s the way I like to work – let it unfold, follow where it leads you. Sounds corny but it’s a more pleasurable way of doing just about anything than following a preconceived plan. Whatever you do next, I look forward to seeing it. 🙂
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August 31, 2022 at 2:51 PM