Anne hosts the challenge this week, and she’s picked one of my favorite scenarios. She writes, “Where do you find peace and relaxation? I find mine wherever water touches land. Yes, any type of shoreline. It may be a beach, a lake, a pond, a creek; you know where I’m going. I’m heading to the shore.” You can find her entire challenge post here.

I have so many photographs of shorelines taken in the United States and several other countries that I’ve decided to limit my submission to photos that I’ve converted to black and white. My first example, above, is a low-key photo of the coastline near Juneau, Alaska, on a cloudy day. A sunbeam stubbornly broke through the cloud layer to add brightness to the scene.

Near our home in Fargo, the Red River winds its way into Canada and Lake Winnipeg. I captured this image on a beautiful summer day as the shoreline bends and turns northerly. The color image is one of my favorites, but I couldn’t resist creating a black-and-white version with Silver Efex.

When a cruise ship sails out of Seattle toward Alaska, it passes one of the most iconic shorelines in the United States. The Space Needle was constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle and, according to Wikipedia, was 605 feet (164 m) and was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River at that time.

In September 2020, smoke and haze from Canadian wildfires drifted for miles through the northern Rocky Mountain states and into North Dakota. We visited Montana’s National Park and were surprised at how much haze there was. I took a lot of creative liberties with my photographs, as sharpness and bright colors were hard to find. For this photo, even the relatively narrow lake had the opposite shoreline indistinct. In addition to making the image black-and-white, I raised the exposure in post-production to make it a high-key photograph.

On our way to Carlsbad Caverns, we stopped in Carlsbad. It was 2014, and drought all but dried up the river. The public boat docks that had been used for years stood high and dry as the shoreline receded into the center of the channel. I haven’t been to the city since 2014, but a quick scan of Google Maps shows the river again filling its banks. There are now only two docks remaining in the Google satellite photo at the location of all these docks.

Halfway across the Pacific Ocean, the island of Kauai boasts many beaches along its shoreline. One of my favorites is Kealia. A shoreline walkway beckoned us to explore at the beach’s end.

We rose early to catch the sunrise at the Outer Banks and found some others enjoying the early morning air. There were surfers and walkers, and even a fisherman was trying to catch his breakfast.

Thanks to everyone who participated in my Cool Colors challenge last week. I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction. Next week, Ritva will host. If you’d like to join the weekly challenges but aren’t sure how to get started, check here.

John Steiner