This mid-May habit of ours has changed over the years. When we started, we were staying in a budget motel on the boardwalk near 14th street. The old Oceanfront Motel, however, is no longer with us. It was demolished last year, and four $4 million condos are being built in its place. Yikes. There’s an image of the new “Sophisticated Oceanfront Suites” in the gallery below. They look nice, but just a bit out of our price range 😜. For the last two years, we’ve stayed in a two-bedroom Vrbo condo on 7th street. It’s interesting being on the other end of the boardwalk, and it gives me new vantage points for my photography.
Which brings me to another thing that has changed over the years: my children’s enthusiasm for my picture-taking. When they were 4 and 7 years old, they were happy participants. At 20 and 23 it is a whole other story, especially with one of them, who really just doesn’t like having a lens pointed at him. Or seeing himself pop up in all of the screen savers I have around the house. So, I need to find more non-people subjects. The shore doesn’t change too much from one year to another, so I appreciate the new angles I notice, being more than seven blocks down the boardwalk from our usual spot.
Ocean City Beach and Boardwalk
Here are some beach and boardwalk images. Get a load of the Eurasian Owl. He’s there to keep those pesky seagulls in check. When he’s not working, other big birds, like falcons and hawks are on the job. They’re fascinating to watch, and they’re very comfortable with people coming over and taking their picture.
Ocean City Corsons Inlet
Several years ago, I went alone to Corson’s Inlet. This year, I made my family come with me. It was Mother’s Day, and they couldn’t say no 😜 (Actually, everyone seemed to want to come, so that was nice). The other time I was here, it was rainy, and I only ventured a small way down the path, so I didn’t see much. This time, we took the entire sandy path, through the thick vegetation, and came out onto a nice beach.
Wildwood
All of the images I’ve shown you so far have been from my DSLR and my phone, with the exception of two Polaroids. But I had Neil’s 35mm with me, and a roll of film burning a hole in my pocket, so Aidan and I took a few hours and headed to Wildwood to photograph the boardwalk and some of the midcentury-style signage. This particular film was a first for me, in that it was not expired, and it was not meant to do otherworldly things with color. It was just a plain old roll of Fujicolor 200.
A few of these images were taken with the phone, but most of them are film.
Wildwood was fun. It was the first time that we’d actually ever left the island during an Ocean City trip. We generally prefer to spend all of our time enjoying what OCNJ has to offer, but I’m glad we decided to take this side trip. Someday I would like to go back there at night and take some photos of the signs all lit up.
In all, it was another lovely trip to Ocean City. I managed to find new things to photograph, and new ways to capture some of the same old stuff. I hope I have left myself something for next year 😁
