I was on assignment this morning for Aurora Photos/The Ocean Conservancy photographing some volunteers clean up the shores of the often closed because of too much E. Coli North Ave. Beach in Chicago. I was pretty amazed at the number of trash bags filled up from seemingly miniscule bits and pieces of trash along the shore. Thousands of cigarette butts, water bottles, beer bottles, a boat tarp, deflated balloons and beach balls, and even shotgun shells, all hiding within plain sight of the average beach goer. North Ave. beach doesn’t look that dirty. One woman I met told me the L.A. beaches she used to frequent as a California resident were often as crowded but “there people seemed to care more” because the beach didn’t get so dirty. I’m not sure what the deal is, but having a %100 increase in the number of volunteers this year over last shows that maybe some people here are starting to care.

Whatever the case, I love, love, love being on beaches, near water. Rocks, sand, gravel, black sand, gold sand, white sand, dirty brown sand, I don’t care. I also love photographing near water, and I made it a goal to try and make an interesting water picture this morning. Who knows if this works, but it speaks of the current murky state of things to me. Anyways, I was thankful for an environmental issues assignment on the beaches of my home area. Being on the beach on a warm autumn day isn’t a problem for me either …