By Donald Wittkowski
Missy Dougherty didn't take time to compose the photo. She simply pointed her camera toward the ocean and snapped an image of her two children gazing out at the storm-tossed waves surging toward the Sea Isle City shoreline.
"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing," Dougherty recalled.
What she captured was a stunning picture that contrasts the enormity of the turbulent waves with the smallness of her son and daughter standing in the foreground.
"They looked so small compared to the white-capped waves," Dougherty said. "It reminded me of the words from a Shania Twain song, 'I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.'"
Dougherty's image was one of two Sea Isle City winners in the Best Hermine Storm Photo contest sponsored by seaislenews.com. Her photo was selected by the staff of the digital news site.
The photo by the other winner, Fran Hogan, was the public's favorite by virtue of the overall number of "likes" in a Facebook vote. Dougherty and Hogan will each receive $100 gift cards as contest winners.
Hogan's photo shows a brilliant red sunset perched over Sea Isle's bayfront, while ominous gray storm clouds loom overhead.
"It gives a contrast of dark versus light," Hogan explained. "It looks like the sun wanted to come out and push the storm back out to sea "
Both Dougherty and Hogan were out shooting photos on Saturday, Sept. 3, as Tropical Storm Hermine meandered up the East Coast and threatened the Jersey Shore. The storm veered farther out to sea than initially predicted, allowing Sea Isle and other beach towns to escape with little or no damage, but it spawned a rough surf.
Dougherty and her husband, Brendan Sr., were walking along the 77th Street beach when their 11-year-old son, Brendan Jr., and 7-year-old daughter, Molly, ran ahead. The children stopped to marvel at the big waves, giving Dougherty the opportunity to snap her winning photo.
"We wandered down the beach to check out some waves," Dougherty said. "It gave us a cool backdrop because of the ocean and the winds."
Dougherty enjoys photography, but considers herself strictly an amateur shutterbug. She works as a bartender during summer weekends at the Springfield Inn at 43rd Street and Pleasure Avenue.
Dougherty lives in Havertown, Pa., but spends her summers in Sea Isle. She said her family has longtime ties to Sea Isle. Her father, George Light, became a well-known local figure while tending bar at the Springfield Inn for more than 35 years.
Now retired, Light and his wife, Barbara, spend their summer vacations at the Sea Isle house they bought on 77th Street in 1969. The Lights make their full-time residence in Havertown, Pa. Their summer home still serves as the family's vacation hub.
"My sisters and I grew up in Sea Isle and spend our summers there," Dougherty said.
Hogan, meanwhile, is another summer resident of Sea Isle. He has a vacation place on 40th Street. He lives in Philadelphia and works as an administrator at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden.
Hogan said he enjoys bayside vistas and considers Sea Isle an ideal place to capture them in his photos. The location for his winning storm picture was overlooking the bay at the foot of the John F. Kennedy Boulevard bridge entering town.
"Sea Isle is my favorite place to take pictures," he said.
Photography is a hobby for Hogan, especially when he travels, he said. He has albums filled with pictures, but characterized himself as an amateur photographer.
"I'm the furthest thing from being a professional photographer, believe me," he said.
