Doug Gritzmacher On Assignment Photography

Smithsonian Magazine assigned me to photograph red knot birds in the Delaware Bay. Red knots fly quite a distance—they go from South America to the Artic and stop just once to refuel. That place is the Delaware Bay. Why? Horseshoe crabs. Every May horseshoe crabs leave the deeper confines of the ocean for the shore where they spawn and deposit eggs in the sand of Delware Bay. The eggs are tiny and resemble tropical Skittles. You can see them in the sand if you look close enough. Red knots happen to have a major penchant for the taste of horseshoe crab eggs. So, in mid-May, after flying thousands of miles, the red knots drop out of the sky en masse to feast on the tasty eggs and re-fatten their scrawny bodies. After two weeks of eating nothing but eggs, they depart to complete their journey north, bellies full.

spring training major league baseball photography. Forget about the regular season, spring training is where it’s at. The games may be meaningless, but the smaller stadiums and relaxed atmosphere create an intimacy that blurs the line between player and fan. The fans arrive early and stay late, eager to bask in the shires belonging to the boys of spring, where autographs and tans are easy to come by.

cell phone photography. For one year a friend in Seattle and I took a photo a day with our cell phones. Each night we sent each other our chosen photo. Obviously, a cell phone camera is severely limited, but limitations can be a catalyst for creativity. I used one of those limitations—a slow shutter with no manual control—to create impressionistic images by experimenting with smearing and motion blur. I found additional ways to work around the cell phone's limitations, although not without encountering some grief. During the year, in my effort to get a shot just right, I had a waitress tell me I was "making her uncomfortable", two girls tell me I was "being creepy", and a theater employee chase me through the halls of a multiplex because he didn't like me taking a photo of the lost and found collection. As it turns out, getting called a creep wasn’t so bad because it gave me one of my favorite shots of the year. That shot and other highlights are included here.

southwest landscapes photography. Between eight states and a district, I’ve lived in every region of the country, but if there was one area I would like to call “home”, it would be the Southwest. The granduer of the landscape is simply unmatched. On my last visit I spent two weeks on the road photographing some of our planet’s most spectacular sights.