THANK GOD FOR SEA GULLS

When the clock radio went off at 6:15 AM, yesterday, the weatherman at my jazz station announced that that it was minus 6 degrees if you considered the wind chill factor. I considered it and hunkered down under my covers and tried not to think of what the day would be like. Wasn’t it just a week or so ago that I wrote a journal and posted a photo showing the mild winter/spring weather?

I didn’t get to hunker for long before the phone broke my reverie. It was the Day Photo Editor telling me that I had to get up to the 3rd Precinct, right away, to cover yet another perp walk. Do you know how cold it can be standing out behind a police precinct at 7:30 in the morning with a wind chill factor of minus 6 degrees. I froze my buns off. A kindly desk sergeant saw my plight and offered me refuge from the biting wind by allowing me to stand inside the doorway through which the prisoners would be brought. This is normally off limits to the press, but this grizzled veteran had spent a lot of his tours standing around in the cold and his empathy was much appreciated, this day.

I had another assignment, later on, and then before my last assignment of the day, I was asked to get a weather floater. God, I hate those. Especially on cold days. You see, there’s nobody out of doors on cold, raw days. Nobody except newspaper photographers looking for cold weather photos. I don’t know how this manages to elude the minds of editors who are always screaming for people in the photos. Long Island is a suburban area, for the most part. And there are damn few sidewalks. So, people don’t walk around much, on cold days on Long Island. They don’t walk along the non-existent sidewalks to the deli to get coffee and a newspaper. First of all, the deli may be six miles from home. So, they get into their cars which are inside their garages. They push the remote garage door opener switch and drive to the deli. When they have made their purchases, the drive home and park in the garage and push the remote to close the garage door. So, you rarely encounter people on the streets of Long Island.

BUT, you always can find sea gulls. We are, after all, an island. And we are surrounded by salt water. Ergo, sea gulls.

I drove down to the Bay Shore Marina. Actually, I was hoping to find a human body looking out across the bay or maybe jogging. Nah, too cold. So, I sat in the car, reading a book, and hoping someone would come along before my next assignment. No one did. Or if they did, they were in their cars, driving and looking at the frigid seascape. I did notice some gulls sitting, hunkered down against the chill winds (much as I had done first thing that morning.) Oh, well, it was better than nothing. As I pushed my door open against the resistance of the wind, gulls came out of nowhere. They aren’t too stupid. A car door opening might mean someone throwing bread out for them to feed on. They hovered in front of me with outspread wings, catching the wind and just hanging in the air, almost motionless. Damn! With a nice backlight and some ominous clouds on the horizon, it wasn’t a bad photo. Thank God for sea gulls.

With a wind chill factor of -6 degrees, today, seagulls stick close to shore and some of them were hunkered down against the strong, chill wind at the Bay Shore Marina. © Newsday Photo By Dick Kraus

Today wasn’t as bad. The weather guy on the radio said it would be 28 degrees but little or no wind. And there was no early perp walk so I could have some breakfast and linger over coffee. Then I had to head up to an indoor ice rink to photograph a wannabe 12 year old figure skater. Then to a geriatric center to photograph a 108 year old woman. Talk about both sides of the coin. My last assignment was at a local museum, but the editor spoke those dreaded words. “Weather floater.” Ah, crap!

They used yesterday’s sea gull shot pretty big in today’s paper, so I couldn’t go back to the south shore. But, I could go to a north shore spot where there were commercial fishing boats and a couple of parks, and a place where I could keep an eye out for people and read my book in the warmth of my car. Again, no human forms were to be seen outdoors on this day. But, across the parking lot I noticed a gull sitting on the hood of a parked car. That looked strange enough to be worth a photo. As I worked my way closer with my camera and a 300 mm lens, I saw a hand come through the car door offering the gull a morsel of bread. Hmmm. Thank God, again, for sea gulls.

It’s not likely that they will run another gull photo in the paper. But, at least I had something decent to show my editor.

And quite frankly, I don’t know why I am waxing so eloquently in praise of sea gulls. I have always despised them as dirty, raucous and lazy creatures. For a number of years I owned a boat and kept it in the water at this very place. And everytime I came down to use the boat for some fishing, I raised my voice damning those feathered garbage eaters for the slimy mess of excrement they left on my decks and cabin top. One day after a successful day of fishing, I was filleting my catch on the stern of my boat. There was a gull floating close by and I would throw the heads and carcasses of the fish toward the gull. If it landed where he could just reach out for it, he would eat it. But, if it landed further than he could reach, he would just watch it sink to the bottom rather than paddle over to it. Lazy bastard.

But, who am I to talk. Haven’t I just described how I got my weather pictures on two consecutive cold days by sitting in my warm car, reading, and waiting for the shot to materialize. Yeah. Thank God for sea gulls.

Another cold day. Thank God for sea gulls. A man feeds a gull from the comfort of his car at Northport Village Park. 02.23.99 Photo by Dick Kraus©Newsday

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