I spent the last two months driving back and forth between New York City and photographer Cheryl Machat Dorskind’s home in Westhampton, New York, shooting her in her studio and in her backyard, accompanying her on professional portrait shoots, a photography boat safari, and random photography walks in the inland wetlands and on the beaches and marsh landscape of Eastern Long Island.

We spent late afternoon and early evening Tuesday on a pontoon cruising the coastal waters of Quantuck and Shinnecock Bays, connected by the Quogue Canal, taking pictures of herons, egrets and ospreys, and the seagrass-covered inland wetlands, where we spied these gorgeous swans when the sun was setting, the sky was slightly overcast, the light was lovely, and the crisp green grasses provided the perfect backdrop for the brilliant white feathers of the swans.

Heaven on Earth.

Heaven on Water.

The Swans of Remsenburg.