Winter seaside evening

Diagonal
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, ISO 200, f8.0, 1/250s

These are pictures taken when visiting the North Sea beach in Egmond aan Zee last winter. We were in the Netherlands on a bittersweet visit to see a family member diagnosed with a terminal disease. The night before we flew back, we decided to go to the beach as it is such a Dutch thing to do and our kids rarely see a real ocean beach. It was bitter cold and windy and there was snow on the ground but we had a great time finished off by a great cup of hot cocoa at a nice little coffee place right at the beach. Technically, these images would have been better if I had had my grad ND filters with me, but we were traveling light.
At this point, we were still thinking that we would likely never see our family member again so we felt rather melancholic, but by a miracle after we had already returned to the states, doctors discovered that the original diagnosis was not correct and it was operable and after a heavy but successful operation, he is currently cancer-free. Too many of our friends (three in recent months died of cancer) have not been that lucky recently so this was good news in a bad news time. Cancer is a nasty disease.


Disturbance
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, ISO 200, f16, 1/160s


Nuclear furnace
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, ISO 200, f16, 1/50s


ripples
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 mm f2.8 at 11 mm, ISO 200, f16, 1/60s


Silver Birds
Nikon D300, Nikon 18-200 VR at 95 mm, ISO 200, f5.3, 1/400s


Yawn
Nikon D300, Nikon 18-200 VR at 170 mm, ISO 200, f5.6, 1/320s