52 Weeks of Urban Nature

Sunset, Netanya, Israel (c) MMD, 2015

I’ve been thinking about picking up a photography project for a while, now — something to shape up those muscles on a regular basis again (it seems like right now I hardly ever take a picture unless I’m traveling!). This morning when I picked up the Washington Post I found an article about people who start 365 projects (you know, post something to Facebook, Instagram, their blog, etc. every day for a year as a creative project). The article highlighted some interesting projects, and I decided it was a sign I should just jump in and not wait for January 1 (sort of an arbitrary timeline anyway).

So here’s my first entry: a sunset shot on the shore in Netanya, Israel, that was taken last Saturday. It was a lovely spot, with a seaside promenade almost the full length of the city. At the same time, it highlighted some of the issues we see when cities grow to the shoreline — erosion and other habitat destruction, pollution, light pollution (more on that in a later post), etc. But on the other hand it’s a lovely way to get people to interact with their environment! We see this tension all the time — that fine balance between giving people opportunities to engage in nature in their communities and keeping those areas suitable for wildlife.

You can also now follow me on Instagram: @megan_draheim

I’ll be posting these photos there every week as well!