March13 2010 Nor'easter at Beaton's Boatyard

I can't tell what this is and Suzanne didn't know either, thought it might be a boat part.

Marsh

Mantoloking Beach

Beaton's from a parking lot across the bay

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Mantoloking Beach

Looking south from the boatyard

Sjogin

Boatyard awash

Marsh



all photos courtesy Suzanne Beaton

I remember this day vividly. Even inland, nearly 100 miles from Beaton's, we experienced high winds, up to 50+ mph and constant rain, a wild day. Rain hard enough to create the first ever leak in my apartment.
The photos here were taken by Suzanne Beaton, wife of Tom Beaton, the third generation operator of this venerable boatyard, known for it's very high quality of workmanship, it's attention to several Barnegat A Cats, left to the yard for upkeep and a builder of high quality. Responsible for at least five A'cat builds, Beaton's is also home to Sjogin. I found this suite of storm photos while casually browsing Facebook. At first blush they appeared to be ordinary snaps of a tremendous weather event. My memory of the day and the furosity of the storm held me a bit and slowly I began to sense something more interesting. I began to see these photos as a straightforward attempt to communicate experience of the storm, probably as seen through the eyes of a gifted amateur photographer. They were pretty gray, so I played with them slightly in my photo editor, pulling out some color here and there, adjusting luminosity. Inevitably I began to compare my response to these photos to my perception of the photos on the gulf tragedy I had recently put up. I was struck by the ability of these photos to somewhat innocently convey the event, without reference to their maker, in contrast to the highly self conscious ( though beautiful) photographs by professional photographers and photojournalists in the previous post. During a phone conversation with Suzanne, she answered my question as to whether or not she was a professional photographer "not quite" and confirmed her status as a gifted amateur as I had guessed. I thought so for two reasons, first, she had not manipulated the photos and second, and more importantly, her 'style' did not intrude on the communication of the photographs. They are pretty straightforward, beautiful in their own right, but not self referential and loaded with 'art' baggage. I found the contrast with the pro's pictures revealing and instructive. Suzanne's work exhibits a good eye for composition, a demanding search for the fact, but are unencumbered with the need to convince us that she is a 'good' photographer. I applaud this and feel it makes for clearer communication. Let me know what you think.

The bay and marsh pictures are from the vicinity of the Beaton Yard, and the beach pics are Mantoloking Beach.
You can view the original photos and much more on the Boatyard's Facebook page, if you are a friend.

Thanks to Suzanne and Tom Beaton.

I am posting these photos with joy and a great deal of admiration for Suzanne's 'braving the storm' to document it.

Thanks