found on the beach

For as long as I can remember I’ve suffered from chronic headaches. I’ve been to the doctor, had CT scans, and tried just about everything. Last year I started having vision problems too so I visited the optometrist who was actually the first person to give me some helpful hints. My vision problems, and subsequently my headaches, were being caused by some overworked muscles in my eyes. Basically I stare at my computer too much. When I’m not on my computer I’m reading, playing video games, or some other task that strains my eyes. I got reading glasses (which look pretty darn cute!), and began paying a lot more what I was doing the days I got headaches.

Last week my head and eyes just felt off. I wasn’t able to look at my computer for very long at all without starting to feel a headache coming on. My house was clean, and it seemed like no matter what I did I’d somehow end up back at my computer desk to check emails, or edit “just a few” photos so I had to get out. All that just to say I spent a lot of time at the beach last week.

It wasn’t long after arriving to the beach this day before noticing I was finding a lot of balls. It was just one after another. All different shapes, sizes, and conditions. There was even a soccer ball but didn’t fit in my little framed area.

I am constantly amazed at the things that wash up. The balls are really interesting to me (uhhh, phrasing) because unlike the other things I find on the beach I would presume most of these are lost as opposed to being intentional litter. Not that I think people throw lighters on the ground, I’m guessing those are lost most of the time too. I just imagine dogs whose owners have thrown the tennis ball just a haaaaair too far and they get lost out in the water for a while before finally washing back to the shore.

You can find previous sets under my “found on the beach” tag.
xoxo

It’s beach season again! Swimsuits, sun, swimming or… ya know, trash. If you’re a new reader and totally confused already, be sure to check out the tag found on the beach.

Last week I headed to my favorite beach to get some fresh air. Still feeling a bit like there was a dark cloud hovering over me I figured spending the evening watching the sun go down over the lake, and listening to the waves hit the beach would do me good. I guess I forgot how much I loved that place, I was instantly at ease. It didn’t take long before I was compulsively picking up lighters. I wanted to do another set of beach trash photos but didn’t necessarily want to do another rainbow gradient. I do love doing that, and will most certainly do it again in the future but I waned something new. So…I picked up everything blue I found, all while singing this song, of course. I walked for around twenty minutes, really probably less. Just one swoop across the beach and this is what I gathered.

Back in May of last year while wandering the beach I noticed I was seeing a lot of lighters. Every few steps I was finding one. I decided to pick all of them that I
found up in hopes that I’d maybe find enough to take a neat picture. By the time I was done, maybe an hour and a half
later, I had found fifty lighters total. I decided to stash them away in my car and continue collecting them throughout the entire summer. I was curious how many I’d find and I, of course, wanted to take a nice big color order photo of them all together.

Well, I collected a total of 199 lighters. In those seven months I visited the beach maybe twice a month or so which really isn’t very often for me at all. I can’t even imagine how many I would have found if I went more often. After I cleaned up the lighters I headed to the other side of the beach to shoot some photos only to find at least eight more on the walk. 

It’s crazy to me how much litter washes up the beach. While the amount of lighters and trash I pick up is shocking it’s nothing compared to everything else that makes it way onto the sand. I was particularly taken aback on the day I went to lay out my lighters for the above photos. SO. MUCH. PLASTIC. It’s so colorful, it was weren’t absolutely disgusting it might kind of be pretty.

xoxo

Another rainbow edition of my found on the beach series. After I put this one together I realized maybe this wouldn’t be the best way to do them from now on since it looks so similar to the last one. Although, I do like this one much better without the white, black and grey section on the end. With the rainbow layout you’re looking more at the colors than the objects, at least I am anyway. It’s obviously way more visually appealing spread out like this, I’m just worried they’ll all start to look the same. Yeah, I’m definitely over thinking trash right now.

Anyway, I’m really excited about this set. I think there are so many neat little gems in there. My favorite thing to find will always be little people and animals.

Quick FAQ – things that get asked every Found on the Beach post.
Do you keep the things you pick up? No way. Once in a while I’ll keep something I really think is neat but I’m no hoarder.
What do you do with it when you’re done? I toss it in the trash where it belongs.
Was this really all from the beach in one day? For the
most part, yes. Sometimes if I find something I really think is neat on a
day I’m not collecting for a photo I’ll pick it up and hang on to it
until the next time I want to put together one of these.
Do you wear gloves? No, I don’t. These are things that
were washed up on the shore, not things simply left behind. They’re no
dirtier than the sand or water.

Prints available here. 
xoxo

Well, I have set a new standard for myself with these found on the beach sets. As someone who organizes just about everything by color – my closet, my DVDs, etc – it’s kind of shocking to me I never thought to do this before. I’m obsessed with how it looks. It was so hard to choose what photos to share because I took so many. I had so much fun sorting everything out by color. (Are you a sorter? I love sorting things, I always have!) Seeing the little piles of colors made me want to do something bigger than just organizing sets on the beach. I’ve got a ton of ideas swirling around in my mind…

Quick FAQ – things that get asked every Found on the Beach post.
Do you keep the things you pick up? No way. Once in a while I’ll keep something I really think is neat but I’m no hoarder.
What do you do with it when you’re done? I toss it in the trash where it belongs.
Was this really all from the beach in one day? For the
most part, yes. Sometimes if I find something I really think is neat on a
day I’m not collecting for a photo I’ll pick it up and hang on to it
until the next time I want to put together one of these.
Do you wear gloves? No, I don’t. These are things that were washed up on the shore, not things simply left behind. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water.

xoxo