I took Ethan to the beach in Waveland, MS so that he could see it before our beautiful coast is affected by the oil spill. Unlike Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, so far most of Mississippi has been spared. As time passes and the oil slick grows in size and in density, we will eventually have oil on our coast, destroying our beaches and wildlife. I hope we are lucky, that the spill affects us minimally, and that our ecosystem recovers quickly. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Gulf, but the future seems very bleak and uncertain.

I wanted Ethan to see the beach, although he probably won’t remember it. Here are some pictures of our day.

I encourage everyone to get out and see the beaches. I only live 30 miles from the Waveland beaches, and I can’t remember the last time I visited our own beaches. It is easy to take for granted the things in your own backyard.

Ethan’s PCS first appeared just a few months before his second birthday. At first it was minor and manageable. He didn’t really want to look at the camera every day, but as long as I gave him a few days of rest, he would cooperate to a degree. As the months went by, his condition worsened. It reached its peak in December. The following photos are not for the faint of heart and display a pretty good representation of a child in the throws of a PCS induced tantrum.

Do you see the intense look of pleading and desperation in his eyes? This session ended a few seconds later with Ethan attempted to violently knock the camera from my hands. I’m glad this phase has passed. We have put Ethan through an intense course of rest from the camera, and he has made some improvements. Generally he still refuses to look and he will make verbal protests “noooooo peek-shure! no mommy cam-rah!”. Sometimes he will even cover his face or attempt to push the camera away. But I do have lucky days where he willingly cooperates. Mornings are generally best. I’ll take any cooperation, even if I only get a look like this:

For all of you photographers out there, most of these were shot during the middle of the day in broad daylight, yet required an ISO over 2000. That is how incredibly dark the rain forest is. Amazing!

Ethan agrees with the critics – this is definitely the best beach he’s ever been to!

And the same image in B&W because I think it looks awesome

The beaches on the Caribbean side of the island were just not as pretty as we expected.

I apologize for the humongous share, but I just can’t help it! These are two of my favorite people and this was honestly one of my favorite photo sessions. The color and emotion were amazing!