Something I don't do often enough is congratulate photographers when they go above and beyond.

New York City based photographer Melanie Burford has done that time and again. This time, she spent a large swath of the past year telling a story of the oil spill to a depth that few photographers reached.

She worked with ProPublica to accomplish the body of work and I helped her edit and refine the story as it progressed. But mostly it was Mel, out there, on her own, being told no time after time and persevering, working around the clock day after day and making pictures at an ever higher level.

Some of her photos ran in the Washington Post a week ago, in print and online.

ProPublica posted her multimedia pieces here.