So with the semester at Stony Brook wrapped up, it’s safe to say it’s been an busy one. Not busy in the Occupy Wall Street/Elections/Superstorm Sandy way, but busy in that we’ve had some great successes and spectacular failures when it came to relations with student journalists on our campus.

My piece iMediaEthics on student journalist-police relations at SBU.

Both of these incidents led me to speak with the assistant police chief for an hour (in addition to the dean of the School of Journalism speaking with the police chief) for an article about these incidents for iMediaEthics.

The talks with the campus police were productive – there’s been an increased spirit of cooperation and understanding – they better understand what journalists do, and we better understand what they do. We’re hoping to expand this into a series of video workshops for both student journalists and police next semester, as well as face-to-face meetings with student journalists and police officials to better understand the demands of both jobs – and how both groups can work with each other instead of against each other.

Since the article was published, students have reported to me that things have improved. One student went so far as to say he had a “good experience” and a “friendly” interaction with an officer while filming from the same spot the students were asked to leave. While it should have always been a friendly experience – from both sides – where it wasn’t before in some cases, it now is. Progress.

As for the failures I mentioned? Well, just read this piece (by a former student of mine, Alexa Gorman) about troubling incidents with the University’s Media Relations department

I spotted this infographic about the Twitter vs. Instagram wars and thought about it – I hate clicking through on the Instagram links on Twitter. I love looking at them inline on Facebook or on Instagram itself.

It wasn’t always this way – Instagram and Twitter used to be friends, and Instagram images would show up inline on Twitter. Then when Facebook bought Instagram, suddenly Twitter and Instagram couldn’t be friends anymore. Facebook wanted to funnel more traffic to its own properties, and so it dropped support for Twitter, forcing people to click through to Instagram. Take a look at the info in the graphic – more people on engaging on Facebook and Instagram. Less on Twitter.

Instagram and Twitter

Facebook won. The user lost.

When a company is blatantly user-unfriendly, such as Bank of America adding a debit card fee, or when Verizon decides to add a $2 “convenience fee” for online bill payments, the user backlash is palpable. So much so, that BoA decided to reverse the idea.

While this move isn’t a monetary issues, it’s certainly a mindshare issue. I realize that as much as I hate to admit it, Facebook has a lot of my mind – I’m on Instagram quite a bit these days. I still share Instagram photos to my Twitter feed, but it’s more a robotic act than anything else.

What’s your flow?

I end up posting to Instagram, then sharing it from there to Facebook and Twitter (which results in me having to remove a duplicate post from Facebook as my Twitter feed flows automatically into Facebook, but I do this instantly). While I wish I could share it in a nice format in Twitter, I don’t end up taking the extra time for embedding photos directly into Twitter, and I don’t want to have to create another archive of photos there.

What do you do? Do you not use one of the services? Do you do something else entirely? Do you Flickr?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The camera buying guide for student journalists has been updated again – a pair of new models from Nikon have hit the market since my last post, and I’ve expanded the list of microphone recommendations. I talk about the new Nikon releases (well, one of them anyway) below.

In the future I’m hoping to get my hands on a high-end Micro Four Thirds model soon to write up a decent look at one of those for journalism. I have limited experience with the Panasonic GH2 (My former student, Amanda Douville and I put together this piece on our high school summer camp with it) but I wouldn’t feel confident enough to do a full writeup after just one small video with it, so I’m holding off until I can get a GH3-caliber camera for review. I certainly felt like the GH2 had a lot to offer to the student journalist. Panasonic, want to help me out?

D7100 released

I’m highlighting this specifically out of the camera buying guide for a couple of very big reasons. Back in the day, I had a Nikon D300s that I loved very dearly. It had a professional autofocus system trickled down from the top Nikon model of the time, the D3. Nikon repeated this with their D7100 – essentially borrowing from the D4 with its autofocus system. Likewise, they also borrowed from the playbook of their professional camera from 2005, the D2x with another feature – the ability to “crop” the sensor and add a little bit of extra zoom to your lens in the process. This also increases the cameras burst rate to 7 frames per second from its usual 6. Both of these developments bode well for sports shooters, especially.

But for the student journalist, since that’s what the guide is about, the biggest news is the headphone jack. You can now monitor your audio live in the field. Finally. As far as I know, this is the lowest-price camera on the market to offer this feature, something that is critical for video.

DSLR shooters have been making do without this feature for a while. But now we don’t have to anymore.

I’ve added the D7100, and the new D5200 to the guide.

Check out the guide by clicking here!

Google Reader warns you of it’s impending death on login.

Ever hear of RSS feeds? No? I have. I use them all the time. You can add this site into an RSS reader and it will flow in the news, like magic.

But RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has a mindshare problem – it’s so transparent, so good at what it does (flowing news to you like e-mail, only better) that people forget it’s there after setting it up. In fact, I just realized that a redesign of this site I did a few months ago dropped the RSS feed from the menu – apparently even I, RSS’s biggest fan, forgot about it.

And that’s why Google is shutting down what is arguably the world’s most popular RSS reader – Google Reader. Starting July 1, it’s gone.

And that’s a scary thing.

You see – many will argue that Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ (ha!) are replacements – that people get the news delivered to them curated by their friends and groups they have “liked.” But that’s a poor substitute for RSS.

A shot of my RSS feed. You can see what I like to read about.

Except Google Reader, I suppose.

You see, Google Reader was great. I loved Google Reader. But I can’t remember the last time I logged in before today. That’s because Google Reader suffers a similar sort of fate that brick-and-mortar stores face against large online retailers – people only walk in to window shop. While that’s not an entirely accurate analogy, it’s close. I can bet that many journalists who are carping about its death treated Google Reader the way I did – which is to say that I loaded up all of my favorite sites into it, then connected the account with my favorite RSS readers on my other devices (Feedler – which apparently already has a plan B - and Flipboard), never to look at Reader again until I needed to add things. No wonder the number of people actually logging into Reader was so low – it did its job so well you didn’t even remember it was doing it.

There’s now about to be a number of apps rendered useless by this move. And there are a number of apps that are rising up to take Google Reader’s place on the throne of RSS (which I think still means that RSS has a chance). I hope that the new caretakers of RSS (metaphorically speaking) figure out how to explain to the general public how important this technology is, so that the next time there’s a sea change in how we consume news, it won’t just be the journalists complaining.

Stay tuned for a look at some of the RSS alternatives. Looks like I’m in the market for a new RSS reader myself.

It’s been quite a while since the last post – and I wrestled with the idea of just posting and moving on as if nothing happened, but in the name of full disclosure, I’ll offer an explanation. It might be lame, but it’s an explanation.

I don’t normally veer into such personal territory on Journographica, but here goes …

First, we bought a house. For the first time. Had no idea what we were getting into. Or how much work it would be. So there’s that.

Second, I’ve been working on this, my new panorama/cellphone/whatever-ography site:

Phonescapes Blog

Not quite sure where I am going with it yet – I needed a space for the fun panoramas and cell phone photos (and other random shots) that I take, but that aren’t necessarily for the portfolio. I also needed a space to teach myself a few new code tricks. Go ahead and check it out, and please let me know if things aren’t working for you!

Some other housekeeping notes. I also worked on this piece for iMediaEthics:

iMediaEthics – AFP doesn’t care about names for captions.

It’s a follow up to a piece by NPR’s Coburn Dukehart, where she examines how a woman felt about not even being asked by journalists for her name.

And then there’s this piece. Where iMediaEthics held a photographer’s feet to the fire about calling my student an Occupy Wall Street protestor, when she was nothing of the sort. She was there covering the event as a journalist for my class:

iMediaEthics – Getty calls student journalist an OWS protestor.

So – I guess we’re all caught up then? Good.

Back to business then.

While this year ended up (for the shooting I did, anyway) being mostly about both Hurricane Sandy and Occupy Wall Street, there were a few quieter moments in the year.

The Freedom Tower in the city saw a ton of progress this year, but in January it was still a tiny thing (comparatively speaking, of course):

A composite photo made form six images of the under-construction Freedom Tower on January 16, 2012. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Then Occupy Wall Street marked 6 months. I offered extra credit to my students to cover it and so they did, turning the city into their newsroom – this was the start of more experiential journalism workshops later in the year.

Police arrest Occupy Wall Street demonstrators during a protest at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on Saturday, March 17, 2012. The Occupy Wall Street Movement marked six months with a march on Wall Street followed by a gathering at Zuccotti Park, where protestors gathered for the first time for the movement on Sept. 17, 2011. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Occupy Wall Street Protestors gather at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on the evening of Saturday, March 17, 2012. The Occupy Wall Street Movement marked six months with a march on Wall Street followed by a gathering at Zuccotti Park, where protestors gathered for the first time for the movement on Sept. 17, 2011. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

And after the protestors got removed from Zuccotti Park, they made Union Square their new home. They weren’t kidding with their chants of “This is what a police state looks like.” – there was a wall of police closing off the park each night for a while:

Occupy Wall Street protestors made Union Square in Manhattan their new base of operations after being removed from Zuccotti Park on the six-month anniversary of the protests. For weeks, police would close off the park at midnight to keep the protestors from staying overnight. This particular night was moments after midnight on March 24. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

More photos from the six-month anniversary can be found here.

Afterwards, things quieted down a bit and I took a drive through the Cohutta National Forest (between Georgia and Tennessee). I saw some strange things scattered in those woods.

Tried to fuel up my ride on April 2, since the price said $1.09 and all. Must have gone out of business more than a decade ago. In the Chattahoochee National Forest.

A bus for McMinn County Schools I found in the Chattahoochee National Forest. I was at least a few hours away from that county. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

And of course, there was Instagram’s arrival on Android. Here’s my second photo, taken in Nashville with the “Nashville” filter. Yes, those are Alpacas:

Alpacas on a bus on April 4. The owner said it was cheaper to buy the school bus and move them herself. Photo by Wasim Ahmad via Instagram.

Things heated up again with the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. This time, 15 students from SBU joined in the coverage. The cameraman in the background of this first shot was shooting for NBC, and you can see the person in this photo get shoved into my camera by the police officer in the clip that appeared on the news that day:

A man who identified himself as Tim Eastman is arrested by NYPD Detective Larsen outside gates on Broadway blocking the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. In the calm before the storm of thousands of demonstrators, police set up checkpoints and barricades in the area to prevent protestors from getting near the NYSE building. The Occupy Wall Street movement marked its one year anniversary on Sept. 17, and organizers planned a day of protests and rallies, all centered around the movement’s birthplace of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. Photo by Wasim Ahmad/Stony Brook University School of Journalism

The occupiers took over Zuccotti Park, once again:

Occupy Wall Street Protestor Michael Kink, from Strong For All (suit, left) and Charles Jenkins, of the Transportation Workers Union (blue, right) rally a crowd at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. “Behind us is ground Zero,” Jenkins said. “There were no CEOs running into the buildings.” on Sept. 11, 2001. He added that it was the transportation workers that ran in to save lives. The Occupy Wall Street movement marked its one year anniversary on Sept. 17, and organizers planned a day of protests and rallies, all centered around the movement’s birthplace of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. Photo by Wasim Ahmad/Stony Brook University School of Journalism

More photos from that set can be found here.

I thought it would be a quiet year after that, but then Hurricane Sandy rolled through at the end of October. If you didn’t go very far past Stony Brook, you’d see things like this, which I saw the day after the storm on Oct. 30:

Trees and power lines lie on Woodlawn Ave. in Ronkonkoma on Tuesday, Oct. 30 after Hurricane Sandy brought high winds to the area on Monday.

But the reality is that it was far, far worse. Which I discovered when I made my way by any means possible to the Rockaways, specifically Roxbury:

Homes lie in a tangled pile of rubble in Roxbury, N.Y. on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. Hurricane Sandy blew through through the area on Monday, bringing with it high winds and flooding for residents in the Roxbury neighborhood of Queens. By Thursday, there was still no power to the area and residents were busy cleaning up the mess the storm left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

And Lindenhurst, with another SOJ professor, Jessica Rotkiewicz:

A boat sits in front of a house Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The boat belonged to one of the neighbors. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Where we discovered the story of these inspirational folks:

Evan Malone, a volunteer with Crisis Response International from West Islip, N.Y., helps clear damaged items from the home of Tara and Chad Widman on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

All while the entire area was in a gas shortage, causing this to happen at just about every gas station in the area for a couple of weeks:

People line up to fill gas canisters the Citgo on Route 109 in North Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to many parts of Long Island as it rolled through the area on Monday, and the resulting gas shortages had people queuing up for hours at any stations that had power and fuel. In addition to the 30-40 people at any given time of day with gas canisters, cars lined up for a few miles outside most gas stations across the Island, including the Citgo station. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

But nothing compared to what I saw when a group of students and I went to the Rockaways:

John Morris, of Astoria, rests Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’€™s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk after helping clean out the homes of other Rockaway residents, including his cousin’€™s down the block. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. “Send us a Tide truck,”€ Morris said, describing the struggles for people to keep clean in the area. He said it was easier to get donated new clothes than to clean the ones he was wearing, with power and most services out for the entire area. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Rockaway residents Claire Conti and Meaghan McHugh sit Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’€™s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind.

Rockaway residents Jacob Papagiannakis and Brian Geoghegan sit Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’€™s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

The students went on to produce a project about the Rockaways’ recovery.

So that’s it for 2012 – I hope, for the sake of all the folks affected by the storm, that 2013 is a better year.

So my favorite punching bag from the early days of Journographica, The Daily, has finally bit the dust.

The final issue featured an animated pile of iPads with The Daily covers.

Despite my criticism, I really was hoping it worked – techno-luddites like me were waiting for a magazine we could take on our iPads, and the touches of interactive graphics and variety gave me some hope that it might actually succeed.

But while the platform and look finally got there after an update in July 2011, the content never did. Never felt like I was reading anything exclusive. Everything I read in The Daily I could have read elsewhere, for free. Often, the stories were even chopped down wire service pieces that gave me less than I could elsewhere. And I paid 99 cents for it per week.

Stories like this one often populated the news section – and I’m perplexed as to why. Am I missing something? This one is from Dec. 4, 2012.

The Daily also existed in its own black hole on the Internet – articles lived in the app until you updated, and then they disappeared forever unless I had thought to clip them. Would it be terrible to provide an online archive? Or even use the Web at all, as more than a link to the Apple App Store?

Ultimately, while I paid for both, the New York Times got the lion’s share of my attention – because it didn’t merely repeat the news I could read elsewhere – it expanded on it with its own brilliant original coverage – a little less interactive on my iPad, but that doesn’t matter when the words and images are so good.

So the lesson here is this: content is still king.

The platform and app built by The Daily team seems like a winner – now, finally at the end – I just hope someone picks up the bones and invests in some good reporters to use them.

The New York Post wrote this headline over a photo of a man about to be hit by a train – on their front page.

Let’s get this one out: this is a poor choice to run as a cover photo, and an even more insensitive choice of headline. This cover should have never made it past a copy desk – or even the headline-writer’s brain.

But the jury is still out on the photographer.

Some background: Ki Suk Han Ki-Suck Han (The initial reports in the Post had his name wrong), of Queens, was thrown onto the tracks on Monday afternoon by a man who had been threatening people on the subway platform. According to the The New York Post, the freelance photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, happened to be on the scene (along with many others), but was unable to help the man. He says that he would not have been able to lift the man off the tracks, so he instead “… ran toward the train, repeatedly firing off his flash to warn the operator.”

It didn’t work, and the train hit and killed Han. Abbasi was left with images that will haunt him for life in his head – and, apparently, in his camera.

I won’t judge the photographer’s actions – the common storyline is that there’s no telling how much time he had to save the man.

Except that there is.

The video accompanying the story on The Post’s website shows several photos from Abbasi. Whenever a camera takes a photo, it embeds a ton of information into the file – shooting settings, camera serial numbers and – most importantly – a timestamp. These attributes cannot be changed easily. Even if the time setting is wrong, examining the files would reveal the amount of time he actually had.

A message for the photographer

A Twitter search for #NYPOST Tuesday night reveals the amount of venom spewing toward the NY Post and Abbasi – similar conversations dotted Facebook.

Let the photos, their timestamps and – I hope – the truth, clear your name.

More on the NY Post/Abbasi cover

iMediaEthics.com: Clues that Abbasi lied about New York Post subway photo?

Gawker.com: Would You Have Taken the Post Subway Photo?: Pulitzer-Winning Photographers Respond

John Morris, of Astoria, rests Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk after helping clean out the homes of other Rockaway residents, including his cousin’s down the block. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. “Send us a Tide truck,” Morris said, describing the struggles for people to keep clean in the area. He said it was easier to get donated new clothes than to clean the ones he was wearing, with power and most services out for the entire area. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Add in a generous helping of sand – everywhere – and much the same can be said for Rockaway, N.Y., after Superstorm Sandy roared through almost two weeks ago.

Frank Gombos, a 32-year Rockaway resident sits Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 outside his apartment building on what’s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Gombos decided to ride out Superstorm Sandy by watching the beach from the lobby of his building, and he said that two waves caused the damage to the boardwalk – the first one loosening it from its cement moorings, and the second one tossing it against the side of his building. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Resident Frank Gombos, a 32-year resident of the Rockaways said he saw the whole thing happen from the lobby of his building over looking the water. He watched, he said, as the first major wave brought on by high tide and fierce winds shook the boardwalk from its supports, and then again as the next wave pushed it into his building. He stayed when most others evacuated.

Rockaway is on a peninsula just south of Brooklyn, bordered on the north by Jamaica Bay and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. Were it not for the large sand piles and sanitation trucks blocking the way, you can drive the entire north-south portion of the area in about 5 minutes.

Rockaway residents Claire Conti and Meaghan McHugh sit Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

The area is still without power. Relief workers pour in to deliver food, clothes and supplies to Rockaway residents. St. Francis de Sales Parish in the neighboring Belle Harbor community has become a makeshift relief center, offering food, clothing and a warming tent where people can get recovery information.

Team Rubicon, a volunteer organization comprised of veterans pairing with civilians, helps pass out supplies to residents in Rockaway, N.Y. on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. For more information, or to volunteer for Team Rubicon, go to www.teamrubiconusa.org. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

And then there’s Jenn Ward and Lisa Schmid. The pair came in from Franklin Square and Oceanside and offered residents trays of home-made food. They weren’t with any group; They just wanted to help.

As daylight wanes, though, relief workers board buses and leave. Generators crank to life and the hum of of hundreds of these lifelines fill the town at night – it’s the only way anyone is getting power at all, though to get the gas to run the generators requires a trip into Brooklyn; A dicey proposition when, at times, you have to wait an hour just to travel the five miles.

Covering the story

School of Journalism students walk along the devastated Rockaway Beach on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

I started with putting things into perspective – each of us had childhood homes where we learned to walk, had many photos taken, raised a brother or sister, shared family meals. These destroyed homes that the students and I were seeing – each one – was that for the people we talked to. It’s a fact that every journalist needs to be aware of while out there telling stories.

This wasn’t the time to joke around, or take a goofy facebook photo.

To the students’ credit, no one did. Several of them told me they didn’t realize how bad Sandy really was until they saw it firsthand here. Living on campus, you’d think a few trees fell down and that was it. Even for those who walked a bit off campus, seeing a few downed power lines and trees don’t compare to seeing destruction on the level of Rockaway.

Every time, I think whatever I’ve seen before should prepare me for what I’m about to see. I thought that covering massive, town-eradicating floods in Binghamton would prepare me. It did not. I thought seeing Roxbury before this would prepare me. I thought Lindenhurst was as bad as it gets. The truth is, nothing can prepare you for seeing destruction on this level in your backyard, in places where you grew up, took your first steps and shared meals with your family.

And seeing this, I hope, spurred the students to action when it comes to covering Sandy’s aftermath. Getting the stories from Rockaway out to the world is one of the many, many things the area needs right now.

Some more photos from the day (and see the students’ work here: Photos from Nick Batson, Jessica Stallone, Jodie Mann and Rebecca Tapio).

Clean-up volunteers with Team Rubicon Brandon Johnson and Zan Goodman, both of Brooklyn sit Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. For more information, or to volunteer for Team Rubicon, go to www.teamrubiconusa.org. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

The Rockaway Beach boardwalk lies in a twisted heap Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind, incuding a completely destroyed boardwalk. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Crews clear out debris from the strees Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 in Rockaway, N.Y. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Rockaway, N.Y. residents, volunteers and visitors wander the beach in the town on Nov. 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind, incuding a completely destroyed boardwalk. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

An American flag is seen in the reflection of a wrecked Toyota Camry on Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Rockaway, N.Y. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

The Ocean Promenade building on the beach in Rockaway, N.Y. sits empty and boarded up on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Rockaway, N.Y. residents, volunteers and visitors wander the beach in the town on Nov. 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind, incuding a completely destroyed boardwalk. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

Rockaway residents Jacob Papagiannakis and Brian Geoghegan sit Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012 on what’s left of the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Superstorm Sandy, coupled with high tide, brought seawater racing through the whole town from the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica Bay, and almost two weeks later, residents were still cleaning up the mess left behind. Photo by Wasim Ahmad.

A boat sits in front of a house Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The boat belonged to one of the neighbors. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

With Hurricane Sandy hitting so close to home, the entirety of Long Island is now, unfortunately, our news backyard. On Saturday, myself and Newsday shooter (and School of Journalism adjunct professor) Jessica Rotkiewicz traveled to our literal backyard – Lindenhurst.

We started in North Lindenhurst, scoping out the gas situation – lines a half-mile long, waits of up to three hours in some cases, and peoples’ patience tested as they waited to see if they were one of the lucky ones to get gas. The scene across the Island was grim – people would shut down their cars after gas ran out and just wait for the next shipment. Usually a police officer or state trooper was hovering near many stations.

Here are some scenes from the Citgo we spotted:

People line up to fill gas canisters the Citgo on Route 109 in North Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to many parts of Long Island as it rolled through the area on Monday, and the resulting gas shortages had people queuing up for hours at any stations that had power and fuel. In addition to the 30-40 people at any given time of day with gas canisters, cars lined up for a few miles outside most gas stations across the Island, including the Citgo station.

Mike (left) and Kevin (right) Krauth fill up gas canisters to power their generators. The pair, from Centereach, N.Y., waited on a line about 30-40 people deep at the Citgo on Route 109 in North Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to many parts of Long Island as it rolled through the area on Monday, and the resulting gas shortages had people queuing up for hours at any stations that had power and fuel. In addition to the 30-40 people at any given time of day with gas canisters, cars lined up for a few miles outside most gas stations across the Island, including the Citgo station.

Cars line up for a couple of miles past the Citgo on Route 109 in North Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to many parts of Long Island as it rolled through the area on Monday, and the resulting gas shortages had people queuing up for hours at any stations that had power and fuel. In addition to the 30-40 people at any given time of day with gas canisters, cars lined up for a few miles outside most gas stations across the Island, including the Citgo station.

From there, we traveled south to the water, where we discovered scenes of utter devastation. I’ve covered devastating flooding before, when Binghamton, N.Y. experienced what was then called a “100-year flood” (it turned out it experienced it again five years later), but this was something different. The flooding issues in Lindenhurst were compounded by 100 mph+ winds. The punishing breezes ripped the siding off homes, shifted houses from their foundations and left boats and cars strewn across front lawns.

But the people we encountered were amongst the most hopeful I have seen. They are fiercely proud of their town. They cherish their waterfront property, even after getting punched in the gut storm after storm. They help each other out – those with power and even some without walk down streets passing out hot meals and drinks to those working in what’s left of their homes.

On Saturday, most residents we encountered were moving their belongings to higher ground, cleaning up yards, and trying to get their lives back in order. Almost all said they’d return.

Take Joanne Dougherty – she raised her now-grown daughters in her Lindenhurst home on the bay. She had planned to ride out the storm, but Sandy had other plans and water poured into her home to almost waist-level, she had to evacuate to her daughter Jackie’s Manhattan residence. Sandy also deposited a gift from the neighbors on her front lawn: a boat.

Jackie Dougherty looks at a boat sitting in front of her mother, Joanne’s, house in Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The boat belonged to one of the neighbors. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

Then there’s Chad and Tara Widman – They bought their home in 2003, happy to have a little slice of property on the water. But Sandy kept them from reaching a decade in the home. They were clearing out soaked belongings from their home on Saturday, but with a lot of help – a group of about 25 volunteers affiliated with Crisis Response International came from across the country to Lindenhurst to help the residents clean up. They set up a tent, provided food and some welcome helping hands for residents still reeling from Sandy.

I had never heard of Crisis Response International, and I wondered why – the work these folks were doing was amazing. Tara Widman, who is Jewish, said that the group descended on the area and just started helping, along with asking people to join them in prayer – no matter what the faith (they happen to believe in Jesus, but they were welcoming of just about everyone they came across). Nobody was getting paid. Everyone traveled from as far away as Oregon and Ohio.

Sean Malone, CRI’s director who was at Ground Zero helping relief efforts after 9/11, said that the volunteers go through a disaster relief training program, and then are mobilized via text and the Web when they are needed to help out. The have a group in New Jersey as well.

More information about the group can be found here: www.criout.com.

Dale Fisher, a CRI volunteer from Youngstown, Ohio, talked to me for a bit about everyone’s roles on Saturday. Earlier in the day, an angry resident didn’t like a couple of journalists roaming through the neighborhood with cameras – disaster tourists, he thought we were.

Dale explained to me – he’s using his gift to help the Widmans clear their home and recover from this disaster – and that I was using my “gift” to document what happened there that day. If it motivates people to act, or at least think, then something good has happened.

Which brings me back to our backyard – this is what happened here, in our backyard. People need to know, so that people can help where it is needed.

And so, here are the rest of those photos. For what it’s worth they motivated me to act today.

A “Help” sign caked in mud sits on Ocean St. in Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

A Volkswagen that bore the full fury of Hurricane Sandy rests on Bayview Ave. East in Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. behind it, a boat rests on the side of a home on Atlantic Street. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

Carmen Amador talks on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 about how Hurricane Sandy damaged her waterfront home in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

Residents cleared their homes of destroyed possessions on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.

Evan Malone, a volunteer with Crisis Response International from West Islip, N.Y., helps clear damaged items from the home of Tara and Chad Widman on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com.

Evan Malone, a volunteer with Crisis Response International from West Islip, N.Y., helps clear damaged items from the home of Tara and Chad Widman on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com.

Dale Fisher, a volunteer with Crisis Response International from Youngstown, Ohio, helps clear damaged items from the home of Tara and Chad Widman on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com.

Volunteers with Crisis Response International pray Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 while helping clear damaged items from the homes of residents reeling from Hurricane Sandy’s flooding in Lindenhurst, N.Y. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com.

This panoramic shot shows the canal between Ocean St. and Atlantic St. in Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in.

The missing walls of a damaged home in Lindenhurst, N.Y. can be seen on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in.

Volunteers with Crisis Response International walk through Lindenhurst, N.Y. Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 helping clear damaged items from the homes of residents reeling from Hurricane Sandy’s flooding. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Crisis Response International trains a network of volunteers to respond to natural disasters, and the group had about 25 members helping in Lindenhurst on Saturday. More information about CRI can be found at www.criout.com.

A boat sits in front of a house Lindenhurst, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012. The area was one of the hardest-hit on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy rolled through the area on Monday. Many homes in the area flooded and some were declared unsafe to live in. Residents spent Saturday removing their belongings before dusk, as the area was still without power.