Sand Ripples

Two nights before we were to leave St. George Island, several storms rolled through the area bringing pouring rains, high winds, and heavy surf.  Lying in bed that night, I figured our final day on the island would be a washout.

The next morning, we awoke to sporadic rainfall.  The day would not be a total disappointment; we would just have to wait for breaks in the rain.

Of course, our dog lives by his own take on the mailman’s creed “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall keep me from taking all of my desired walks.”  A dedicated dog we have, so, dodging the rain, off we went.

From the feel of the sand, it was obvious the tide had come in farther than it had any of the prior days.  Walking up the beach toward the lighthouse, I began to notice that the action of wind and surf had created ripples in the sand.  But, they were small and uninspiring, and the lighting didn’t help.

Later that evening, we went for the final walk of our trip.  Having gone toward the lighthouse earlier in the day, we decided to head in the opposite direction this time.  As we walked along the beach, I again noticed the sand ripples.  They seemed to be more pronounced than before, but, again, the lighting was unflattering.

We continued walking for about 30 minutes.  Because of the heavy cloud cover, it was getting dark earlier than it normally would have, so we decided it would be a good idea to go back.

We turned around and began heading back to our house.   We had hardly begun making the return trip when the sun broke through the clouds creating fantastic lighting that highlighted the crest of each sand ripple.  With this lighting, I saw incredible abstract patterns everywhere I looked.

I grabbed my camera and began shooting as many of the different undisturbed patterns as I could see.  But, I had two concerns.  First, I had not checked the camera battery until a few minutes into our walk.  When I thought to check it, I found it was only about 15% charged.  I didn’t have an extra one with me, so the possibility of my camera going dead in the middle of this beautiful lighting was a distinct possibility.  There was nothing I could do about that, so I just kept shooting for as long as I could.

My second challenge was trying to keep my wife and dog from walking through the middle of the area I was photographing.  I would be looking through the viewfinder composing and focusing the shot, and either my wife or the dog (or sometimes both) would walk right through the scene leaving footprints and/or paw prints across the frame.  It was frustrating, but it was also kind of comical.

In the end, my battery held out, my dog decided to run off and chase birds with my wife flying behind him like a kite, and I got my pictures.  All in all, it was a pretty good trip.

Settings: 67mm, 1/125 sec, f/22, 2500 ISO