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A Brief Account (with Video!) of the Bangia-Human Hair Resemblance
Bangia-like filamentous reds are a naturalist’s delight in the exposed upper intertidal, where they favor the tops of rounded boulders and rocks. The filaments of these inscrutable reds wave in the...
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Something Different on the Horizon
This image doesn’t do justice to one of the world’s best seascapes. Still, there’s a lot to like. Off to the right rises an iconic Oregon headland, its upper slopes dressed in a maritime forest of...
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Minimalist Scenes from the Rocky Intertidal
Space is at a premium in the rocky intertidal. Producers, filter feeders, predators, and their prey pack together so closely open ground is scant. Low tide betrays jumbles of barnacles upon mussels,...
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Moody Closeups from the Intertidal
On my home beaches the best of the fall and winter low tides take place in darkness. Good low tides and daylight start to line up in March, and morning tidepooling, which we first see in April, lasts...
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Sitka Spruce, Ally in the Maritime Forest
Look up from the tide pools to the forest above. If your gaze turns landward, you’ll probably be staring into a spruce forest. No other conifer is as closely associated, in our minds, and in reality,...
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Construction on the Coast
No permit required. At the edge of a low tidepool a colony of tube-dwelling worms has created a new mound of calcareous tubes and cemented sand. Bioconstruction adds structure and mass to rocky...
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A Walk Along the Shore
Walk the shore enough and you’ll grow to think you know it. I’m prone to that. It’s only natural, but I believe it’s good advice to walk once in a while with someone new. See the shore through their...
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Out of the Shadows
Mask Limpet, Lottia persona, illuminated by morning sunlight. Shadows
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Melobesia, a Coralline Crust on Seagrasses
Melobesia mediocris is a coralline crust associated with surfgrass and eelgrass. If I had to pick a common name, I’d probably go with surfgrass coralline. Seagrass crust is a reasonable option. Young...
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Dreamy Drift Macrocystis
Magical MacrocystisWhat drift landed you on this shore? All still now Macrocystis, like a lot of marine organisms, has a dreamy quality. I came across the drifted mass featured here on May 20th, 2019....
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Seaside Silhouettes
I’ve put together some images featuring silhouettes from the past year. It was a surprise to find out I had any silhouettes at all in my collection. Am I alone avoiding backlighting rather than using...
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Morning Magic
Lottia caught my attention, but dang, that gorgeous Lessoniopsis. In the moment, I was so distracted by the limpet, probably Lottia pelta, I missed the beauty of Lessoniopsis. At their base, the...
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Dawn Breaks on a Crustacean Clash
Three minutes before sunrise, a seemingly peaceful scene, but beach hoppers were tussling on the drift line. 5:59:11 am | The driftline is visible in the lower left corner On the beach, the driftline...
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Filling Frames on theoutershores
Drift bull kelp is one of my favorite subjects on sandy shores. The distant shot here is fine with me, but moving closer and lower allowed me to bring out details, and arguably, increase impact....
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A Rock Crab, Blending In
It takes a measure of faith to claim you captured a candid crab shot. Their senses, the ones they share with us anyhow, are acute. They have great vision and usually see us before we see them. This...
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Bringing out the Red in Rhodophyta
The intertidal can be a drab place, it usually is where I wander. In these images I’ve made it all the more so by dialing down the colors to grayscale. Everything but the reds. A patch patch of...
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The Trouble with Surfperch of a Certain Size
This driftline scene is on the unusual side, not super unusual, but unusual enough to get you thinking. If it’s not clear what’s going on, a double-crested cormorant nabbed a barred surfperch a tad...
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Driftline on Display
It was one of those mornings when everything on the driftline seemed to be out on display. I was waiting around, waiting for one of those high spring tides. The ones they call King Tide. The sand was...
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Favorite Photos from theoutershores, 2019
This being a good time of year to enjoy pretty pictures, I’ve selected a few of my favorites. Most of them, and I hope you’ll forgive me for this, have appeared previously in various theoutershores...
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