Figure 1 – Photominimalism – Gull tracks and shell shards in the sand, Crane Beach, Ipswich, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

A walk along the beach so often draws me photographically to minimalist subjects. Ripples in the sand, strands of seaweed, and a few small shells draw me inexorably to photograph. On last Sunday’s trip to Crane Beach I was drawn to the subject matter of Figure 1. Here are some gull tracks in the wet sand and a few shattered and sun-bleached shells. Animal tracks are curious, of course. Most often they are of the most fleeting and ephemeral nature, soon obliterated by the shifting forces of nature. A few times they turn to rock, preserved forever. And rarest still, these stoney impressions become discovered by paleontologists, eons hence, and become held in high esteem as trinkets of lost ages and species.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4 USM lens at 100mm, ISO 400, Aperture Priority SE Mode 1/640th sec at f/7.1 with pattern metering and no exposure compensation.