Eric C. Reuter's photostream  

I have led at times, a brutally hard life. At least the last 10 years of it. Having lost all I had, including my marriage, home, intact family and career. All my worldly possessions, save a very few, and every dollar and investment I had left, in my 53 years on this planet.

I know what pain is. I know what loss is. I know what betrayal feels like. On a scale and with such ferocity as few can imagine. In a mere heartbeat, I had lost it all. I never knew what hit me. It all cascaded into an avalanche that buried me.

I learned some very painful lessons. Mostly I learned to never take what I have for granted ever again. To treasure the people in my life, regardless of what I may have in the way of worldly things.

This is what has led me to seek out beauty in nature and the amazing world in which we live. And to capture it with my cameras. For me, this is healing in a way only nature can provide.

I do what I love because it is all I have left. And it is the one thing that saved my life.

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I'm a longtime resident of the New Jersey shore, and enjoy exploring the tidal marshes, shore and surrounding Pine Barrens wilderness in search of new and interesting subjects for photographs. I spent almost 30 years working as systems analyst and then senior manager of scientific computing for a large pharmaceutical company. In addition, I worked for 15 years as a level designer for computer and video games, including some well known, major titles for the PC. In recent months I have left the world of IT and devoted all of my time to writing and to my photography.

Always interested in science and nature, I bought my first real camera, a Nikkormat FT3, at age 17. That was combined with my first telescope, purchased with lawn-mowing money at age 15. Also an avid collector of Fossils, Rocks and Minerals, I've always had a fascination and appreciation for nature, science and the world around me. At 18 years of age, I had my own makeshift darkroom, and was processing black and white film and developing prints of anything and everything. My love of photography never waned, and the advent of high quality digital cameras opened up a whole new world of opportunity, no longer constrained by the limits of film.

I can usually be found at the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR in Oceanville, NJ, or at Barnegat Light Inlet and jetty, seeing what new surprises and fascinating things are in store for photo opportunities.

There is nothing on Earth to me that is more liberating and more uplifting than to witness the beauty and diversity of the natural world, to be a part of it, and to capture it with my camera.