Surreal Hurricane Irene Experience

Surreal Hurricane Irene Experience

If you have ever photographed the skimmer and tern colonies at Nickerson Beach the image above will be shocking. I made it while standing in the western-most colony looking to the west. The pretty much ravaged Piping Plover predator exclosure is in the center of what used to be the colony. Only four of the dozens of poles that held the strings that protected the site remained after Irene blasted through early on Sunday, August 28, 2011. Two poles can be seen in the upper right part of the frame with two more (not really visible in the JPEG) dead center in the distance below the middle of the rainbow. You can enjoy a 1024 pixel wide version of this image here.

About a foot of sand covered most of the beach grasses that formerly offered protection to the chicks. It seems a ghastly sight but in all likelihood the beach vegetation will begin to grow back early next spring as similar scouring of the beach occurs most years during winter nor’easters. The birds will return in April and May to begin yet another successful breeding season.

My Mom’s neighborhood was largely spared any great damage. We never lost either power or cable. 🙂 As the wind speeds dropped and the rain let up I made plans to head out to Nickerson beach to see how the birds and the colony had fared. When I pulled into the lot there were two other vehicles there but is was spitting sideways rain so I stayed in the car for fifteen minutes until the rain stopped. There was a steady fierce west wind of at least 40mph. I grabbed my 70-200, slung it bolero-style over my shoulder with the Black Rapid RS-7 Strap that I have recently come to love and then pulled on my rain jacket over the whole thing. I put on a woolen watch cap and then pulled the hood of the rain jacket over my head and headed out to the beach into the remnants of Hurricane Irene. The flooding was minimal. As I headed towards the eastern-most colony I saw a small group of American Oystercatchers but not a single skimmer or tern. A brave dad made his way down to the ocean with the kids to enjoy a Sunday afternoon at the beach. I photographed them on their way back to their car to try and show how the wind was blowing the sand. Who would expect white-out conditions at the beach in summer!

I chose ISO 800 in order to ensure fast shutter speeds and sharp images despite the fact that my rig was being unmercifully buffeted by the wind whenever I tried to make an image.

Seeing no birds at the eastern colony I decided to head to the western colony in hopes of finding a group of terns and skimmers huddled against the storm but it was impossible to walk into that wind while facing west lest your eyeballs would become sand-blasted. I simply began to walk backwards but progress was slow as the wind was both fierce and steady. I turned my head to peek at the beach every so often to make sure that I did not trip over a large surf-tossed board. The four-minute walk took me nearly 20 minutes. At times, strong gusts stopped me in my tracks. The one memory that I shall take to my grave is the rat-tat-tat gunshot sound of the drawstrings hitting ferociously against the hood of my rain jacket.

I had never seen so much sea foam. In spots the foam was a foot or two deep and–as you can see in the image above–was being whipped to a frenzy by the wind.

As I neared the western-most colony the wind let up just a smidge so I dared point my lens to the south by slightly southwest to make an image of the rolling heavy surf. I remember seeing much taller breaking waves at Capri Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, NY after a hurricane when I was about 13 but those were breaking relatively close to shore. Yesterday the waves were breaking almost as far out as you could see.

Just after I made the lead image for this blog post I found myself wandering around the colony wondering where and if the birds had found refuge and taking in and photographing the small details. Here, the fast shutter speed has frozen the blowing grains of sand in midair.

Bleak was the word of the day. I have always been fascinated by pattern-type images; this one is about as simple as a photograph can be.

Knowing that just 60 hours before I had photographed newly-fledged skimmer and tern chicks in the very spot seen in the image above added to the surreal feeling that engulfed me on my post-Irene beach walk that afternoon.

It was getting close to 5pm and I figured that it was time to head back to my Mom’s in Holbrook when I noticed a single skimmer in flight just above the dunes to my right. I gingerly made my way up a low portion of the dune and was glad to see a group of both adult and juvenile skimmers and terns huddled below me. I made a few images and, with the wind now behind me, made my way back to my rental car. The experience turned out to be even more surreal than I had expected but I was sure glad that I made the effort.

Your Favorite?

Take a moment to leave a comment and let us know which is your favorite Hurricane Irene/Nickerson Beach image. Which one do you think best represents my experience?

Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear used to create the images in today’s post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Support both the Bulletins and the Blog by making all your B & H purchases here.

Canon 15mm fish eye lens. It takes lots of imagination and practice to learn to make good images with this fun lens.
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. Man, I am loving this lens on my shoulder with the 2X III teleconverter. I also use it a lot with the 1.4X III TC.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Black Rapid RS-7 Strap. This is a case of where have you been all my life?
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.