Bay Journal

Welcome to our updated website.

I'm sure you will agree that it's more eye-catching, and easier to navigate, than our old site. But the changes go deeper. Our home page is divided into sections  -- news, blogs, features, opinion and travel -- which makes it easier to find particular types os stories. Also new are the topics pages, which categorize articles into specific themes, such as pollution, fisheries, wildlife & habitat, etc.

Caves of the Shenandoah

It’s hard to predict what the weather is going to be like for the rest of the winter, what with the swings in temperatures from 17 degrees one day to 61 the next.

But one place where it’s always 55 degrees? Inside a cave.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed has some of the most amazing caverns. Most of them are in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

Winds of change?

Is there a wind of change blowing in the Maryland Senate this year? President Mike Miller seems to think so. Last night, at the Maryland Environmental Summit, he reiterated that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s wind energy bill would pass this year.

If he’s right, then the third time would be the charm. In the past two years, the legislation that would enable a wind farm to be built off the coast of Ocean City passed the House, but couldn’t win over enough senators to become law.

Order of Chaos

Photographers go to great lengths to make order out of chaos. A good photograph has a strong point of view, clean lines, generally good composition. In this case chaos IS the point. Anyone who has ever witnessed a flock of snow geese erupt into flight knows that the sight and sounds of those birds says chaos to the extreme.    This flock was photographed with a 200mm lens, 2x tele extender, Olympus E-5 camera, 1250/sec. @ f5.6. ISO 200. The scene was made at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge just after sunrise, thin cloud cover.

January morning along the Choptank River

It was a very cold pre dawn January morning along the Choptank River.   Out to capture some winter scenes (since we didn't really have winter last year). I found this ice encrusted plant and made a photo in the early morning light.    Wanting more drama in the photo I waited until the rising sun barely kissed it and made another exposure. Sometimes is pays to wait for the light.Both photographs were made with an Olympus E-5, 12-60mm lens at 21mm.  

Virginia oystermen in Kegotank Bay

I had been out most of the day photographing a pair of seaside Virginia oystermen in Kegotank Bay, near Gargatha Inlet and was generally pleased with the day's work.  The two watermen had been picking up clumps of oysters, breaking them apart with  culling hammers and saving the prime ones in wire baskets.    Having finished the last few photos of them off loading the oysters, I began to pack up my camera and audio gear when I caught another oyster picker out of the corner of my eye.   He was celebrating a 4 bushel day (at $50 per bushel) with a Colt 45.  His wonderful demeanor, working man's wardrobe and the nice late afternoon light made for a great combination.