If you have followed any of our vacations in the past, then you already know I tend to post iPhone images while we’re away and then share the more serious – and artful – Nikon DSLR photographs once we return home.

So now we are home. Still on vacation (through Sunday), but back in Wake Forest. I took many less pictures than anticipated, mostly because the overwhelming heat sucked the energy out of my usual “unfettered paparazzi” approach.

I enjoy the entire process of photography: keeping my eyes open for anything interesting, stopping, looking for the best angle and the ideal light, then framing out a great image (it drives Rebekah crazy sometimes!). But the heat put a damper on all that and made the camera feel like it weighed a ton!

But I did snag at least a small collection of really great images for your viewing pleasure. You can:

• See the entire six-photo sequence of the seagull in flight at the beach,
• Enjoy a series of ocean images that – hopefully – capture something of the color and the movement of the waves, and…
• View a few additional photographs from the picturesque New Bern street where our B&B was located.

This has been, as we have already discussed, an unusual vacation for us. Of course, we understand we are not alone in this, as pretty much everyone we know has had plans upended due to the current health crisis. But Rebekah has been in dire need of some kind of a break and we are doing our very best to make this special.

So stay tuned for more from our short but effective attempt to refresh and recalibrate. And – for today – enjoy these photographs from the past 48 hours. Click on the first image, then run through them all like a slide show:

In love, and because of love – DEREK