Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

Safe Haven

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14mm wide angle sunset photo made over the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh creek. The photo is intentionally blurred to create a streaked, painterly effect moving left to right.

Safe Haven — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 0.3 sec

Last night proved a stunning evening on the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh. Absolute idyllic mid-summer magic on the wetlands. Serene and sublime, a pristine atmosphere intent on peeling back layers of stress and worry. You would be hard pressed to put a price tag on this kind of therapy. Always look to nature when in times of great healing. She stands ever ready to render big magic into our lives. We must but take a moment to look and see.

I am blessed to have Dock Road. Long has it reigned as a safe haven. My go-to destination whenever I my heart, mind, and soul needs a respite. I have faithfully kept a COVID-19 journal daily since my first entry on 19 March 2020, which happened to be Day 4 of isolation. Last night marked Day 121 where I shared the following:

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Day 121 — The Salt Marsh

Location: [redacted address] Manahawkin, NJ
Time: 9:48 p.m.

Visiting the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh has been an essential go-to for the entirety of my adult life. Whether for storm chasing, leisure cruising with friends, or a solemn place to cleanse the mind palate. The later has been especially true since I began my landscape photography journey back in 2012. This is my spot to take a mental reset and make beautiful photographs. It truly is a place of wonder mere miles from my home. Trust me, the salt marsh wetlands will lift any mood—especially so in summer.

Tonight proved stunning on the marsh. Absolute mid-summer perfection. Temperatures were mild, humidity at bay, with a slack breeze barely palpable. Pastel sunset colors danced about the lower third of the sky, and the waters of Cedar Run laid flat, creating a pristine mirrored reflection. In ambient aural beauty birds and bugs sounded in the distance, completing the tableau. This is how I will always remember the mid-Atlantic summers on the salt marsh of coastal New Jersey. Such an underrated—and under appreciated—ecosystem.

Get out there. Find yourself a safe haven. Pull your shot and streak the sky!

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Photos from the archives

14mm wide angle sunset photograph of colorful pastel clouds overtop green salt marsh and reflected in the tide pool.
Fiery HDR sunset photography taken from Sunset Cove in Bowleys Quarters, Maryland, overlooking a Chesapeake Bay tributary.
Landscape photograph of Holgate, NJ, beaches under a pastel winter sunset
An HDR photograph taken at the end of Cedar Run Dock Road overlooking the bay to the south taken just after sunset.
An icy handrail makes for an interesting macro shot with the setting sun over the bay off in the distance left of a sharp focused icicle.