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About Tom Lorsung, Photographer
Before I retired, I thought that the ideal life would be to follow the example of the photographer whose work I once read about: Doing nothing but photographing egrets. Reality brought that notion to a quick halt, of course. I'm not that narrowly focused, and besides, I haven't found an endless population of egrets . . . yet. What I have found on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is a rich population of birds. In fact, I thought of calling this book, "Herons and Egrets and Ospreys, Oh My!" But I have also been fascinated with other aspects of Shore life, particularly the play of light in the sky and on the water at sunset.
My wife, Mary, and I are truly blessed to have a second home on the Eastern Shore, near Cambridge in Dorchester County. When we bought, at a time when the market for waterfront property was a lot friendlier than it is now, we were captivated by the view of the water, a shallow cove just off the Choptank River. We never thought about whether we had a sunset view, but we do and it's been amazing and ever-changing. So in this collection of photos, I want to share with you the beauties of the Shore, both on the wing and in the water and sky, As you will see, in the summers of 2004 and 2005, I developed a particular fascination with ospreys, those magnificent fish hawks which soar around Chesapeake waterways. I spent hours staking out a nest three properties away from our Shore home and experienced some unforgettable moments including an osprey landing dramatically on the nest and a mother osprey feeding her scrawny babies at sunset. I have also spent a fair amount of time at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 miles from our Shore home, and have had some great experiences getting close to a heron finishing a meal in the marsh and finding a party of four egrets among many feasting on carp turned belly-up by heat and drought. When I have shown some of these photos to friends, they often ask if they were shot with film or digital cameras, so I have included that information in descriptions for the book. I can say that from now on, all my photos will be digital. My patience is spent on waiting for the birds to do their thing, then I want to see the image right away.
I hope that these are images which will delight and maybe even inspire you: To appreciate the natural beauty all around us and perhaps to help preserve it for our children and grandchildren.
Enjoy! Lorsung is a retired editor and former photo editor who has been interested in photography ever since college, and has been happy to provide "refrigerator photos" of friends and family for many years. He and his wife, Mary, a former Howard County Council representative, have lived in Columbia since 1972 and have had a second home near Cambridge in Dorchester County, Maryland, since 1996.
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