Category: Flora

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Protecting the Dunes at Bethany Beach, Delaware

Dunes grasses and fencing are important to our coastal ecosystem.

A sea of grass and sand dunes extend out to the Atlantic Ocean at Bethany Beach in Sussex County, Delaware. This photograph, captured along a beach pathway at Bethany Beach, Delaware, highlights the importance of healthy dune grasses and fence to our coastal ecosystem. These beach grasses and dune fencing help protect the sand dunes and also delineate a pathway to the beach.

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Dunes Grasses, Fencing and a Path at Bethany Beach

Bill Swartwout’s photograph of a pathway through the sand dunes at Bethany Beach draws the viewer in to explore the scene.

Bethany Beach, Delaware, is a popular summer destination along the Atlantic coast of the United States. A beautiful beach with no public access road over the dunes, the town relies on dune fences and grasses to direct visitors towards its sandy shore. Some people like to walk along the dunes and look at the grasses and the fence and maybe even imagine what it must have been like before there were people here.

bethany beach dunes grasses
Bethan Beach Dune Grasses and Fence

The very best way to approach photographing a subject is to imagine yourself in conversation with the subject, then moving closer and closer, becoming more of a participant as time goes by. Bill Swartwout’s work is an amazing way to capture the beauty of our natural surroundings, and Crossing the Dunes at Bethany Beach is a wonderful example of that. The photo is tranquil and peaceful, and looks like a scene from a faraway land. It’s an instant favorite!

Thought for the day: If you can’t find joy on the beach, then it’s not the beach that’s wrong.

Browse and/or shop with the gallery links below.

Link: Dune Grass at Bethany Beach – Vertical

Link: Crossing the Dunes at Bethany Beach – Horizontal

Link to: Bill’s Bethany Beach Collection.

Link to: Bill’s full gallery at Fine Art America/Pixels

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Food as Art – and Nourishment

Some food looks better than it tastes.

Some food tastes better than it looks. Some may look interesting and taste interesting, too.

Here’s a stack of Onion Rings from a restaurant in St. Joseph, Michigan named Clementine’s (yup, you guessed it, OhMyDarling.com). This tower of Michigan Onion (bet you didn’t know Michigan is a major onion-producing state) onion rings was about the best we’ve had – anywhere – ever. Artistically, the tower also has merit and would look great in a vertical wall art presentation in one’s kitchen or casual dining area.

How about some red hot chili peppers to spice up that blank wall in your kitchen? Hot peppers are all the rage these days – just look at the gazillion jars of hot sauces available at any gourmet market. These peppers, in blazing bright red, photographed at a farm market in Delaware, are the epitome of chili peppers and would certainly brighten up any place you decided to display them as wall art. Or what do you think about these depicted on coffee mugs or maybe even hot chili pepper throw pillows.

Red Hot Chili Peppers from a farm store in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Then there is always popcorn. Right? How about this as a design element in itself. Everybody likes popcorn and this display of Carmel Popcorn, while photographed at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, might be found in just about any beach town – anywhere. Can you imagine how challenging this would be as a jigsaw puzzle. Absolutely and, yes, this is available as a quality jigsaw.

Caramel Popcorn on display at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC

Click the links below to see a bit more about each image and/or to browse/shop for wall art (for you kitchen, perhaps) or for a home decor item as a conversation piece.

Link: Best Onion Rings Ever

Link: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Link: Caramel Corn Behind Glass

Link to: Bill’s Food As Art Collection at Fine Art America – where you can see many other examples of “Food as Art” that may get your creative juices flowing.

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Blooming Christmas Cactus in Fuchsia

A Christmas Cactus blossom in both color and in black and white.

Nancy’s Christmas Cactus is caught during a rare blooming event with this pink – magenta – fuchsia flower being illuminated by morning light a few days before Christmas.

Magenta Christmas Cactus Blossom

Although known as a cactus, this plant is really a succulent, the Schlumbergera truncata. Commonly known as a Christmas Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus and/or Holiday Cactus, this beautiful plant is named for the seasons in which it typically blooms.

A black and white presentation of a colorful blossom actually brings out some detail in the petals that the pink/fuschia/magneta color seems to hide.

Christmas Cactus Blossom in Black and White

Links for larger wall art images and home decor items.

Link to full color image: Christmas Cactus Blossom

Link to B&W image: Christmas Cactus Blossom in Black and White

Other terms associated with these images might include: fuchsia, pink, cactus, flower, plant, christmas, bloom, schlumbergera, beauty, magenta, floral, decoration, blossom, houseplant, petal, december, blooming, blossoming, winter, season, succulent, christmas cactus, botany, seasonal, holiday cactus, schlumbergera truncata and flora.