Photographs of storm systems as seen from airplanes or satellites aren’t too uncommon these days, but have you ever seen one that looks like this? Probably not, because this photograph is out of this world — literally. It’s titled “The Rose,” and shows the spinning vortex of a gigantic hurricane on the surface of Saturn.
Read more…

Natural disasters are tragic for many reasons. Assuming, most importantly, that you and your loved ones come through one such disaster healthy, you immediately begin the process of putting your life back together. And even though top priorities are probably your home, cars, critical documents, and so on, those things are replaceable; the photos that may have also been damaged or destroyed are not.

Operation Photo Rescue is an organization that understands this, and its volunteers want to do everything in their power to help. Read more…

After the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, there emerged volunteer efforts to find, restore, and return precious photos swept away by the waters. CNN writes of a similar effort being done in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy:

Jeannette Van Houten also lost her Union Beach home in Sandy, but buried among the devastation she found a calling — to return memories of happier times to the 1.8-square-mile township by reuniting residents with the family photographs that Sandy scattered to the winds. The day after the storm, Van Houten went for a walk along the shoreline to assess the damage and she stumbled upon a photograph of a couple attending a wedding. She leaned down, picked it up and, suddenly, her mission became clear. “Photos are the only things that hold us to the past [...]” said Van Houten.

She soon started a Facebook page where she uploaded the pictures she found, hopeful that through the power of social media, residents of the small community would see them and be able to identify the faces and families in the photographs. Since she started, Van Houten has uploaded more than 2,000 photos to the Facebook page [...] About 60 families have reclaimed photos so far, she said.

Finding joy among the wreckage: Family photos returned post-Sandy [CNN]

Thanks for sending in the tip, Rob!

Camera companies are doing their part to help victims of Hurricane Sandy get back on their feet. Here’s something that might be great news to some photographers on the East Coast: Sigma is extending its warranty to cover damage caused by the hurricane.
Read more…

A blacked-out New York City wasn’t the only rare photo op that Hurricane Sandy left in her wake. NASA solar physicist David Hathaway captured the above photo in Huntsville, Alabama two days ago after seeing the strange rings surrounding the afternoon sun.
Read more…

Want to see what New York City experienced over the past few days? Check out this time-lapse video by Silas Maniatis (SMvideoChan on YouTube). The photographs were captured by a camera mounted to the top of the building at 2 Northside Piers in Brooklyn and snapping away at 2 frames every minute, or 30 seconds between shots.
Read more…

The role Twitter played during Arab Spring in early 2011 gave the microblogging service a huge boost in legitimacy and pushed it into the mainstream. Instagram may be having a similar “coming of age” experience through its role in the ongoing coverage of Hurricane Sandy.
Read more…

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, photographer Richard Misrach visited the empty city and documented the destruction. Although he shot roughly 1,000 photos using an 8×10 large format camera, he noticed that many of the snapshots he captured using a point-and-shoot camera told an interesting story of what had occurred. These photos, which showed the graffiti messages left by residents fleeing their homes, were subsequently published in a book titled “Destroy this Memory“. In the video above, Misrach tells the story of how the project came to be.

Destroy This Memory (via dvafoto)