The Little Clownfish That Wreaked Havoc

Well, this post was originally going to be about my latest skiing adventures, but nature decided to throw a few snowflakes our way this past weekend, so the skiing entry will have to wait just a little longer.

So, with the help of my lovely new camera, let me introduce you to today’s topic:

About a week ago, the weather channel turned on to high alert as it warned us about the winter wrath making its way through the states, heading towards the unsuspecting Northeast. Ok, unsuspecting may not be the right word, since we heard about this storm every second for at least a week before it hit, but I figure I’m allowed some poetic license here. So while state officials scrambled to get enough snow plows, salt and crews ready to prevent disaster, and the power companies attempted to avoid a riot by fanning out their crews to potential outage zones, I remained baffled by the name choice for this storm: Nemo. When I hear the name Nemo, I think of a little clownfish who was the star of a Disney/Pixar film. A clownfish. Not a shark, not a whale, not even a barracuda. Doesn’t quite seem like the most appropriate name for a seemingly apocalyptic snow storm, but maybe that’s just me.

So there you have it. The build up to the storm of the century (again, poetic license), the blizzard of the decade (this is almost accurate)…They got this one right. We definitely got some snow. Actually, that’s a gruesome understatement – we got A LOT of snow. So much snow that our apartment parking lot looks like the bottom of a ski slope. It’s been a workout so far. No need to go to the gym this week!

Enough words for now, let me leave you with some photos. I thought I would begin with a type of time lapse of the blizzard, and then I’ll post some of my favorite photos.

Nemo Time Lapse:

This is towards the beginning of the snowfall – probably a couple of hours in. Just barely a dusting, considering what followed.

This is late at night – the blizzard was in full swing at this point, but would get even worse shortly after!

The following morning: the skies still seem to be threatening to dump more snow…

…But instead this happened a few hours later. The beauty of it was breathtaking.

And a final one for the time lapse, as the sun slowly moved along…

And now for some of my favorites:

This photo deserves a little background story: this storm was the perfect opportunity for me to really play around with my new camera. I tried all sorts of settings (special setting for snow photos, for dusk photos…), and it was a huge learning experience for my manual focus. This is one of my favorites using the manual focus…And there were a lot, believe me. That’s what happens when you give me a DSLR with a pretty big memory card. I was having a blast!

Cars? What Cars?
Oh yes. This is our parking lot. This is why I said no need for the gym this week. The past 3 days we have worked out so much with hours of shoveling. Yes, shoveling – not snowblowing, not plowing, manual shoveling. I would say it took about 2.5 hours just to clear our car. And we didn’t stop after our car.  But truth be told, it’s been awesome!

And a few evening shots to finish the day…

Until next time…

I hope you enjoyed, and that all of you affected by the blizzard stayed safe and warm! Also, any feedback or comments on the photos are always welcome as I’ve just started using my DSLR and would definitely love to learn more!

Snowstorm Time Lapse

While I collect my thoughts (or rants) on our ongoing blackout for a ‘proper’ post, while still waiting for our power to come back on, I’ll leave you with these pictures of the storm, while taking advantage of my brother-in-law’s internet and heating.

Hope you enjoy!

13:20 on 29 October 2011 - The First Flakes

 

15:22 on 29 October 2011 - Still enjoying the view at this point, since we still have power. Boy, didn't that change quickly.

 

16:59 on 29 October 2011 - You may not see much of a difference between this picture and the last one, but please observe that not only is there more snow on the ground, but the branches are also lower. By the by, at this point, we had already lost power. But not hope. We lost that when it started seeming like power was never coming back. We're still waiting - - for hope and power.

8:41 on 30 October 2011 - The Morning After. Don't let the blue sky fool you, it was just a masquerade to trick you into thinking everything would be ok. Not cool. Cold, very cold, but not cool. I'd rather the treats, not the tricks at Halloween.

 

16:16 on 30 October 2011 - As you can see, the unbroken branches have regained their proper posture, unlike the previous photo where they were weighed down by the seemingly never ending dark and cold. Oh wait, my mistake, that was us, not the trees. The trees were just momentarily weighed down by the snow piling up on their leaves.