It's tough. Life is tough at this crazy point in history. I normally don't allow things to get me down but even the strongest resolve can take a hit. Of late I've been heading more and more to the Ocean, it is there I find solace. But when I get there it's full of trash. We've just had one small typhoon here in Okinawa, another bearing down on us, and with that comes crazy amounts of shoreline debris. What is there to appreciate in a view when one has to photoshop out the trash from most wide angle compositions? I thought I'd get away from that and went to shoot one of my favored places here in Okinawa recently, the Cape Zanpa Lighthouse.

Tried something very different for this shot. ND10,000 at ISO1250 for 1.3sec. Laowa 12mm f2.8 wide open. Canon EOS5DSr using additional KANI Soft GND0.9 Filter.

Very much needing my trusted felt bottomed booties to negotiate the razor sharp volcanic landscape around the location I headed out. I needed sea air to clear the mind. The Ocean was rough, awesome, I was planning to shoot long exposures anyways. Darkness again descended during my walk out to the planned shooting spot. Everywhere I looked trash was apparent. Lifted and deposited into pretty much every nook and cranny of the uneven rocks everything from dolls heads to Wellington boots and beyond. The sight makes me sick to my stomach. I dread the day when my son is old enough and able to understand the issues that threaten the World he lives in, and for him to potentially ask me "What did you do Dad to help avoid this"?

What are we doing folks? What are we all doing? The health of our Planet should be our first and foremost priority. Without that there is no future for our families. I don't see the future of my family ending just with my son, what about his kids, and theirs? What kind of a World should they be expected to live in? But I digress. It's not the kids of today that need the education, it's the parents. When I see so many parents more preoccupied with their 'smart' devices while driving, in school meetings, in recreational areas and at social events. It's so sad to think there is something more important than the here and now, something more important than spending time with your kids that requires you to ignore them and, more importantly, your surroundings.

I guess this post sounds more like a bundled collection of non-directional concerns, and I guess it is that. I don't have the answers. I don't have the answers but I do have an intention, and that is to try and inspire a need for change in addressing at a simple local level the need for greater regard, and respect, for our immediate surroundings. How that will galvanize in real terms is yet to be seen but I can't simple stand by idly as our World becomes so infested with trash that it then becomes the norm.

"Our oceans are facing innumerable threats from overfishing and pollution to ocean acidification and invasive species, yet we haven't had a blueprint for its use and development, incredible as that seems "

Phillipe Cousteau Jr.