This last week allowed me to cross two big items off my bucket list-photographically and in the game of life. First, many who know me also know that I can be a bit of a nag during the full/new moon cycle in May and June and I am reading tide tables, watching the weather and trying to figure out which beach will be the most promising for sighting horseshoe crab spawning. This is an annual phenomenon when horseshoe crabs travel from the deep blue ocean to lay their eggs in the high tide sands. As one fellow photog who has a way with words put it: Primordial Porn. A name that is apt, given the many male crabs that attempt the attach themselves to the female as she is burrowing to lay her eggs. I have witnessed this activity before, but never with a camera, and it has been a life’s goal to capture this for us to appreciate, and hopefully treat them with care.
Unfortunately, the baymen, who also must make a living I grant you, use this time to patrol the beaches and just fill their buckets with them. No, horseshoe crabs are not a delicacy in some far off nation’s cuisine. Instead, they are bait for a delicacy here on eastern Long Island-eels. It is the eggs of the horseshoe crabs that are most appealing, so the baymen gather up what they can. During spawning, it is like shooting ducks in a barrel.
So while it was heartbreaking to see the buckets full, it was wonderful to see the hundred or so crabs furiously working to continue the species. See the collage board below.
But first, let me also share with you the other life’s goal I accomplished this week-a ride in a helicopter. When I tell you that I have been trying to accomplish this since I was a teen, I am not exaggerating. But, for one reason or another-weather, timing, cost-I just never made it off the ground. Well this time around, my photographic skills were needed to assist in the Southold Relay for Life, by way of an aerial photo of the event. So, just before sunset, I climbed aboard a crop duster type chopper, strapped myself in, and got ready to shoot. It was one of the best 10 minutes I have ever been airborne! I have also included a collage board of some of that, too.
