Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

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Litter Knows No Bounds

July 23, 2015 by Greg Molyneux

Golden hour photograph of guardrails, power lines, litter and the salt marsh

Litter Knows No Bounds — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/320

Travel anywhere in this world and you won’t have to look hard for the litter to find you. Not that I know this from experience, but so I’ve been told—I’m not really one for wanderlust. This is especially true for those of us living along the coast where our waterways turn into a de facto mass transit system for our discarded interests. Our refuse gets around easier than we do. I’m sure somewhere on the antarctic ice sheets emperor penguins are bee-bopping next to a transient piece of plastic. I just hope they’re not choking on it.

As I was traipsing about Dock Road this past Sunday, basking in some serious golden hour light pouring over the salt marsh, I began popping off some handheld shots that differ from my more typical tripod only wide angle compositions. The twisted guardrail you see barrel rolling across the frame has caught my eye for years, but I’ve never put it to any kind of compositional use. It wasn’t until I was kneeling to frame up this shot I noticed the trash. For a moment I thought about removing the water bottle from the frame in order to capture a more pristine “natural” shot, but then thought, nah, I’m gonna keep this piece of garbage in my shot. Maybe I had a temporary moment of journalistic integrity and wanted to capture the shot as it really was? Who knows?

In the interest of full disclosure I have never set the world on fire as some kind of environmentalist/conservationist, though my desire to protect our Spaceship Earth has grown stronger with age. I have to give credit to my good buddy Ben Wurst for setting a fine example for myself and the rest of our cohort to follow. He has certainly opened my eyes and caused me to think differently. Though I get a big fat ‘F’ for not picking up this here water bottle to bring it to its rightful place in the bottom of my recycle bin. I am ashamed.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cedar run dock road golden hour guardrails landscape leading lines litter power lines roads

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Photos from the archives

Manahawkin, NJ photographer Greg Molyneux takes a long exposure black and white photograph of the bay and abandoned docks on Great Bay Boulevard.
Sunset photo over frozen Barnegat Bay in Harvey Cedars, NJ.
Great Bay Boulevard sunset photo of Rand's Marina left in ruin.
Black-eyed Susan macro photo with bokeh and shallow depth of field.
Tiger lily sprouts surrounded by snow and oak leaves.

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