These photos by Todd Selby from Gidon Bing's Auckland studio have me jonesing something fierce for a stroll by the sea. Every time I'm home in the islands, I make a point of taking a nice, long, solitary walk along the shore, stooping to pick up the odd piece of beach glass or puzzling detritus from the deeps. The beaches at home are as beautiful in winter hail and gentle rain as they are at sunset in the summertime: the salty smells, the stacks of a cargo ship far across the channel towards Canada, the cries of the gulls or the sudden screech of a Great Blue Heron, interrupted.
I always return from these walks with a shell or two rattling in my pockets, but I never seem to know just what to do with them when I get home. Eventually they are lost in the yard, underfoot, in some dusty corner, or perhaps sent to a watery grave in the washing machine. Seeing these drawers upon drawers of carefully sorted specimens gives me all sorts of dangerous ideas. As if I needed something new to hoard!
(All photos by Todd Selby found on theselby.com, please give credit if you repost)
