Devastation

We got so lucky.  So lucky.  Hurricane Sandy made a direct hit in our area, but it had to go through the coastline first, particularly the Jersey Shore.  Places like Atlantic City and Ocean City got pounded.  Over 3 million homes lost power in the Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania area.  Here are some photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, most of them along the Jersey Shore.

The pin on this map shows where me and my family lives in Delaware.  We never even lost power while many people along the coastline lost everything. 

Trying to escape the waves and rising waters.

Impassable roads.

Devastation from the air.

The amusement park by Seaside Heights is destroyed.

Boardwalks are gone.

A huge tanker ship run aground.

The Hudson River empties into Ground Zero in New York City.

These are photos of how we were affected on the east coast of the United States by Hurricane Sandy.  As bad as all this is, the Caribbean country of Haiti was affected so much worse!  Many there had little or nothing to begin with and now what little they had was washed away.

Morning After

It appears that we survived Hurricane Sandy.  I awoke at 1:30 am to hear our windows getting pelted by wind, rain and debris.  I couldn't sleep and the biography of Son of Sam was interesting, so I stayed up till a little after 3:00 am.  It's still very windy (and cold) as you can see by this photo of tree limbs getting blown around, but things should improve throughout the day.

Frankenstorm

Hurricane Sandy, described by forecasters as one of the largest hurricanes to ever hit the United States, is heading straight for us.  We are starting to feel the effects of this massive storm with heavy rain, flooding and wind gusts over 40 mph.  And the eye of the storm is still 200 miles away!  We are expecting the height of the storm to arrive overnight tonight.  At that time, winds will sustain at 75 mph and the water will pile up 5-10 inches.
This storm is being called "Frankenstorm" because the hurricane is combining with a large cold front coming from the north-west.  Sandy is also a monster in terms of sheer size; tropical force winds extend 520 miles out from the center of the storm.

Early Autumn

Here is another shot in the creek bed of Brandywine Springs in Newport, Delaware.  I took several shots of the small water falls throughout the length of the creek.  See my post for yesterday to see a couple of them.  But this shot was very bright and colorful, even without the long-exposure of rushing water.

Brandywine Springs

A couple days ago, I took advantage of an overcast day to take long-exposure photos in the creek bed at Brandywine Springs Park in Newport, Delaware.  There is much to tell about this amazing place, from an encampment of General George Washington to a full blown amusement park in the late 1800's to early 1900's.  I will do a whole week of blogs in the near future about the history of the park.  For now, here are a couple shots of the creek.

P.S. This is my 300th blog, a semi-great feat.

Super Sky

This sky is not really that super.  It's more like a pretty good sky.  What makes it "super" is that it will serve as the background for a Superman project I'm working on.  My version of the Man of Steel will have the character speeding along the bottom portion of the clouds where that sunburst is positioned.  I took over a dozen shots of that sky so there would be many photos to choose from.  After picking the best one, I still flipped the photo horizontally.  Now the sky photo is perfect (or close to it) and I am going to spend the day vectoring it.

Aphid Wolf

I am always looking on tree trunks looking for interesting things, mostly insects.  While looking on a tree trunk near our home, I stumbled upon something I didn't know even existed.  An Aphid Wolf, also known as a Brown Lacewing Larva, covers itself with moss and lichen in order to camouflage like nothing I have ever seen.  Here are several photos of this amazing little insect, including a shot of it blending with its' environment.  Do you see it?  It is the circular piece of moss in the upper left of the small frame.

Antlers

Tater and I took a road trip last weekend and stopped at a roadside rest area along the way.  Inside the building was an old jeep filled with all kinds of stuff, like suitcases, golf clubs, and toys.  At the top of the heap was a mounted deer head.  Tater says, "Are deer heads really that big?"  I confirmed that they really are that big.  Then Tater says, "I didn't know they had sticks growing out of their heads."

Pine Cone

As I'm sure you know, there are many different kinds of pine trees and, therefor, many different kinds of pine cones.  This one is from a type of spruce tree.  I have to confess that I pulled this one off the tree.  It was very breezy and the little sucker wouldn't keep still.  I figured it would fall off the tree eventually anyway.

Mini Mushrooms

While looking for insects on a moss-covered weeping willow tree, I found these little mushrooms growing out of the bark and moss.  The name of these mushrooms are Mycena corticola and some are as small as the head of a pin!

Another Hopper View

My Leaf Hopper photo proved to be very popular on deviantART, so here is another view of this amazing little insect.

Tiny Leaf Hopper

Here is another photo taken with my G3 phone.  This little insect was the size of my pinky fingernail and my phone was able to capture it with it's macro feature. 

PHL View from the Top

I work at the Philadelphia Airport and this is one of the views from the tower.  It was taken at dusk with my Samsung G3 phone.  Most people look down their noses at photos taken with a phone.  But this one has an 8 megapixel camera.  And after a couple experiments, my pics are better with this phone than with my Canon Rebel.

A Better Seahorse

I wasn't completely happy with my vector seahorse.  It looked unfinished and many hours were spent making seaweed that was barely visible as the background.  So some of the seaweed was duplicated, reshaped and repositioned as the foreground.  This helps to anchor the seahorse and show off some very stylish seaweed.  I wouldn't eat it though...probably tastes like spinach.

Ghost Flower

When I removed the color from my daffodil photo, I thought it had a ghostly feel to it.  The original photo was taken several months ago, but I wanted to wait until the Halloween season to show it.

Jet Pull 2012

Every year, USAirways employees pull jets to raise money for the United Way.  Teams of 20 employees pull a jet in a tug-of-war type contest.  There are over 80 teams across the USAirways system that compete in this yearly fund raiser.  I design the t-shirts for our team, Tower of Power.  This design shows where we work, the PHL ground tower, in Philadelphia, PA.