Photographer Michael Orhelein releases book of Delaware shore images

Well known and award-winning local photographer Michael Orhelein has just released a collection of some of his favorite shore photographs and prose in a new book, "Ocean Images," available now through local stores and galleries.

"Ocean Images, Vol. I" is a collection of 60 photographs made in and around the shore from Cape Henlopen to Fenwick Island. Pounding waves, lush sunsets and ethereal sun rises, shore birds, boardwalk scenes and the new Indian River Inlet bridge by day and night are among the scenes filling the pages of Orhelein’s book.

“If you have ever stood in awe of the beauty of the breaking waves or the colors of the sky or the expanse of an osprey’s wings, then you will feel that again when you open my book,” said Orhelein. “I hope everyone enjoys these images as much as I have enjoyed making them.”

Orhelein is a master of photography, master print maker and is the recipient of numerous professional awards, both nationally and internationally, including Overseas Portrait Photographer of the Year from the British Professional Photographers Association and such stateside awards as Portrait of the Year and Best Portrait of a Dog from the Professional Photographers of America. He is also a five-time recipient of the Kodak Gallery Award and the Fuji Masterpiece Award.

Orhelein was introduced to the medium of photography and the art of print making at the age of 10. “I accidentally opened the door to my cousin’s darkroom and let in the light. It wasn’t the most pleasant event of my life,” he said.

Later forgiven, however, he was gifted his first camera, a Kodak Brownie, and that “began my journey into the world of image making.

“The mystery behind the magic was strong. I wanted to create powerful images like those I saw in National Geographic and other magazines, and that desire drove me to continual learning and improvement,” he said.

Orhelein was accepted into the prestigious Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif. But it was more than the technicalities of photography that he wanted to learn.

“Great photographs are made, not taken,” he says. “Seeing takes practice and an image is often in mind and internal before it becomes a canvas. It is after the image is captured that the decisions of process come into play. Technique is crucial, but there must also be passion. There can be passion without art, but there can be no art without passion.”

Orhelein spent many summers at the beach while growing up and says sand and water became part of his soul. In 1988, he proposed to local girl Hope Fitzgerald on the jetty at Wellington Parkway in Bethany Beach. Today, they live year-round in the Bethany area and have three children, Ryan, McKenzie and Keegan.

Best known for his portraits of families on the beach, Orhelein says he is pleased to be able to bring the beauty of Delaware’s beaches “to all who love it the way I do.”

"Ocean Images, Vol. 1" is available at his Bethany Fine Arts Gallery next to the Fudge Factory and the Bethany Book Store, at the Ellen Rice Gallery in Ocean View and in at DiscoverSea Museum in Fenwick Island.

Orhelein’s work can also be viewed at opbeach.com or via appointment by calling his portrait studio at 302-539-0102.