Sunday, June 21, 2015

Photo-of-the-Week #216 An Angry Ocean, Outer Banks, Duck, North Carolina, January 2002


With all the storms hitting the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast over the past few weeks, this very old photo seemed apropos for this week's photo. I dug this one up from files that go back about 13 1/2 years ago when I first began experimenting with a very simple digital camera. Obviously, the resolution of the inexpensive little box was very low compared to the high resolution sensors that have evolved since that time. The reality is this camera didn't even have an LCD screen on the back. Yes! I was still a 35mm film photographer at the time.

I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays pretty much by myself that year. I drove down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a predetermined amount of cash in my pocket to use for renting a property of some kind on the beach. When I hit the Outer Banks I drove from real estate office to real estate office, told them how much I was willing to spend for a two week rental of some kind of one or two bedroom property (cottage or condo) on the beach. The amount I was determined to spend was small. I knew this was completely out of season, so I wasn't going to offer big dollars.

The first five real estate offices turned me down without even looking to see if they had anything that might be available. I guess they and their rental property owners had enough money already. But, the sixth realtor was "hungry" and asked me to go grab some lunch and come back, they believed they had something. I did and they did. I ended up with a one bedroom condo with an ocean view. It suited my needs and my price and I was a happy camper.

Toward the end of the two weeks a Nor'easter blew through. This photo was one of several I took during and immediately after the storm. I was in awe of the change in the landscape over a 24 hour period as a result of that storm. It was very easy for me to understand the damage to the New Jersey shore (one of the stomping grounds of my youth) caused by Hurricane Sandy a few years back since this storm was tiny in comparison. Nature is ever awesome whether the beauty of the deserts, mountains, canyons, forests, lakes, rivers and oceans or experiencing its mighty force in any manner.


There's an old saying, "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature." Whoever said that . . . was ever so correct. 

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