Ortley Beach: 80 Days After Sandy

Just about 3 months after the storm, visiting Ortley Beach, NJ still feels like a different world. This post is going to be a bit photo-heavy, but it can serve as a dedication of sorts to the town that Ortley once was, and what it will be again. It’s difficult to describe what it’s like to go to a town you once knew so well that you could probably describe the streets house by house – and be met with what feels like no landmarks to identify what street you’re standing on. The rubble is extensive, the streets are buckled, and there are enormous masses of tangled rope and the fabric of people’s lives washed up on the shore. These are really the only photos I’ve taken thus far since the storm – I’ve only been back twice. Ray has been back several more times than that. The beach in Ortley is closed, and not wanting to tempt fate we didn’t try to sneak up so I could get some photos of the now-infamous fallen JetStar. In the last shot of the first grouping, Ray is feeling the water – not something we get to do every day anymore.











These photos are from the same street in happier times.

This is a favorite shot of the pier and JetStar – taken standing on the old ramp that used to lie at the end of the street.








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Feathered Friends

I think I might have spoken in an earlier post, about how I love the time of year when baby ducks and geese starting running around. If I haven’t mentioned it before – I absolutely love it when this happens. I try not to be too intrusive, but I love seeing the little ones running around and being all fluffy and adorable with themselves. I had a chance to take a couple of snaps of some fuzzy little goslings this weekend, so I’d like to pass along the cute.

I kind of had to shoot through a fence, so I was impressed that I held steady for a couple shots.

Here’s another cute little fellow, in keeping with my avian theme.

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Before We Were Famous

So I was exaggerating. We are not famous now. However, if you are looking at comparative fame from 4 years ago, we are doing awesome.

I’ve noticed lately, that my computer has been insanely bogged down. My CS5 is running at a really glacial pace, which is slowing down photo editing something awful. I’ve been working on a nice watermark to slap all over our photos, but I was barely able to create a text box in under 3 minutes. I realized that the sheer mass of photographic excellence on this computer’s hard drive might be the culprit. There are easily close to 10,000 photos on my desktop, if not more than that. While I do love each and every one, it was time to do some deleting.

Here are some photos from before we really started doing photography seriously, and some from the very beginning.

I used this shot in our promos up until very recently. It is stupidly simple, but I’ve always loved it. It was taken early in our game, but it still makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

One of my all-time favorite shots. Ray and I went crabbing and caught 1 crab. We had him in the bucket for a bit with a cutting board and knife. When I went to check on him, the crab had picked up the knife and was waving it around. Really. Just goes to show you: New Jersey crabs are badass and carry knives.

I rarely go see sunrise. I typically run in the mornings, so I wake up for work at around 5:30. The last thing I want to do on the weekend is drag myself to the beach before sunrise – that’s Ray’s thing. Luckily, the couple of times I’ve done it – I have been richly rewarded. This sunrise was simple – but my timing could not have been better with that bird.

Each year I obsess over what I term ‘the running of the duckings’ which is when the ever-present Canadian geese have their babies. I consistently go on the hunt to obtain photos of the cute little balls of fluff.

There are many more favorite old shots – but these were the ones I stumbled upon early. Hope you enjoyed!

Personal Favorite

Every now and again I stumble upon one of my shots that I think is really awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I generally do like all my photos. It’s just that occasionally there is one that I fall absolutely in love with. It usually ends up not being the favorite of everyone else – but I typically love it all the same (and can’t understand why no one else ends up loving it like I do.)

I recently took my new favorite. It may be my favorite of all time, I’m not sure yet.

Ready? OK!

It doesn’t always happen where my vision of the photo I am taking, matches the reality. Here, the two lined up. The bird stood still. He was in the perfect place. The sunset was just understated enough.

 

So yeah. Really proud of this one.

Valentine’s Day My Way

Firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope that each of you is having a really great day, and that everyone has received enough chocolate to fulfill their needs. I know my chocolate needs are often insatiable, so I must typically shop discount racks to pick up unwanted candy days after Valentine’s Day. Don’t judge me. My sweetheart did allow me to micro manage my own box of chocolates from my favorite candy shop – but let’s face it. That’s like.. a week’s supply, if that.

I just wanted to share some pretty images in light of today’s holiday.

I’m sorry, but I have not magically discovered how to incorporate hearts into my sunsets. However – I present to you… SWANS!

I apologize the necks of these swans are not intertwined forming a heart. The irony about swans is that while they are beautiful, they are nasty. And they are big. The larger one (closest to the camera) in this shot had a neck so wide I probably couldn’t have fit my hand around it. I attempted to ply the swans with poptarts, but they just weren’t having it. They were hissing at me and very unhappy about the unplanned photoshoot, so I had to don my telephoto lens and keep a respectable distance.

I also present to you… PINK!

I am always really enamored with large masses of birds, for whatever reason. The other day I was able to locate a very large mass, indeed. After the photos, I promptly felt the need to run through them – effectively breaking them up.

And there you have it. My two contributions to Valentine’s Day.

Really though. If you have someone that you love – do something nice for them today. Buy your girl flowers even though it’s been overdone and she may have told you she doesn’t want them: SHE DOES. Tell your lady that she is beautiful: AND MEAN IT. These little things make the relationship, folks.

Ok. I’m done. 😀

A Word On Movement

I was going to write this post yesterday, because I had a few things to say about my HDR work and some recent subjects I was trying to capture. However, some other things got in the way. Those other things were (in order): 2 papers for my graduate coursework (they are still not done), cooking chicken, and watching ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love‘. I don’t have much to say about anything except the movie. I wanted to see it when it was in the theatre but did not get around to it. Then I had to wait a really long time to even get my hands on it after it came out on DVD. This is saying a lot from a girl who’s favorite movies include Jaws, Beetlejuice, Thelma and Louise, and An Officer and a Gentleman.

I’m not sure Crazy, Stupid, Love can stand beside Jaws – but it was good. It was actually able to capture in some small measure – something that felt like real life. It did include an obligatory ‘make-over scene’ which the movie probably could have done without, but aside from that I enjoyed it.

Anyway, on to what I was really going to write this post about.

The other day, after I got those bird shots, I got some beachy/sunset shots. I actually went down to the lighthouse when the sun was going down to see if it was going to be as epic as the other day, and it didn’t seem like anything was cooking – so I tried some other perspectives. I got a couple nice ones, but quickly became frustrated because I was dealing with this:

All the guys fishing makes for some cool photography in itself. You would have almost thought that they were giving out free $5 bills down at the jetty for all the crowding down there. But they weren’t. These are all just men after some good old Jersey Shore striped bass. The problem with all those guys fishing was that it was killing my attempts at HDR – because you can’t have people milling all around and trucks driving everywhere when you are trying to take the exact same shot at least 3 times at different exposures.

I managed to get 2.

This one is actually the nicer of the 2, although there is one truck that’s ghosting because it was driving. I’m sure you can find it if you look. The tidewater was so nice for HDR (the reflections always read really well) so I just had to give it a shot. Just after this shot, I looked behind me – and noted that the sky had begun to do crazy things. Unfortunately, the rush back to the jetty for a better view proved too little too late, and between setting up down there and rushing, the shots did not come out post-worthy.

Here is the lesser of the 2 shots:

It’s still cool, but I am a sucker for those reflections.

I guess I’ll just have to wait to do my thing until the beach is a bit less crowded, or get more creative.

A Bird in the Sand

Ok, so for the title of this post I was really trying to do something clever with the old, ‘a bird in the hand’ saying – but I really couldn’t come up with anything catchy or clever. If I do come up with something, I will stick it up there.

I’m not really what you would call a ‘birder’. I’ve seen real birders. They are often photographers, but sometimes they just have these wildly expensive telephoto lens-looking things that do not take photos. They love birds enough to just watch them and be happy. I like to photograph birds, but on most occasions I take seagulls (which New Jersey is overrun with, by the way) for granted. Now and again Ray and I will go down to the jetty in the winter, where there are more colorful waterfowl. In the winter, Jersey gets harlequin ducks (my favorite) and little buffleheads. I have not successfully landed professional quality shots of these guys yet, so you will just have to wait until January when they return.

Yesterday down on IBSP, there were a couple little guys that looked  bit like seagulls (but were not), so I got distracted and started to do some shots of them. I also inadvertantly got some shots of seagulls, but they were doing cool things so I suppose it was ok.

These were the prettier little ones. They were rather petite and adorable.

Look at his little face. I was really surprised at myself for getting such a nice flight shot. They were small and fast.

I just like the blue of the sky and the white of the seagull in this photo. This is just your standard New Jersey gull.

Ray and I spent a long time trying to set up a sand eel so we could get a shot like this. It finally paid off, as I was able to snap the moment this gull landed to pluck the tasty little morsel off the ground.

This may be as close to birding as I will come.