Thanks to all for the comments (and to those who have looked so far). I know what you mean Ann (and Marco). The loss of Tim Samaras and his crew at Moore, OK was a devastating and sobering one for the whole chaser community. I'm fortunate enough to have a photo of myself with Tim Samaras, taken at the ChaserCon convention that he co-hosted each year in Denver. http://www.antiqueauto.org/assets/Darren-TimSamaras.jpg Hard to believe he and his crew are gone.
Before that happened, we all felt that with "yahoos" and newbies getting too close that it was only a matter of time before there was a chaser fatality, but we were all shocked that the first would be someone with the savvy and experience of Tim Samaras and it was a good reminder (for any who needed it) that, while we know a lot more than we used to, tornadoes are still an unpredictable and wild beast. There are also other ways that a storm can kill you, from hydroplaning in a downpour, to lightning, to wind blown debris or trees being blown over on top of you. My philosophy is to be in it for the photography, which almost by definition means keeping my distance. Generally speaking, if you are in the precipitation/hail area of a storm you aren't in the right place to see anything. I've got a radar app that shows my location in relation to the storm (assuming I'm in range of a cell tower - not always a given once you are off the main highways in Nebraska). Sometimes it might be necessary to "core punch" a supercell if you are on the wrong side of where you need to be, and that can be scary and you know you are risking vehicle damage when you do that on some storms. But better planning/forecasting and being in place ahead-of-time (storm initiation) should make those cases few and far between. The most dangerous part of chasing is the driving, and that's dangerous for anybody behind the wheel, these days. On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:35 AM, ann sanfedele <[email protected]> wrote: > Well I love 'em... > > and while I understand why you opted for black and white, I'd love to > see the color version of the first one... from the point of view > of a weather channel afficianado :-) > > while I love the shots you get, I hope not to see apiece on the webor TV > about _you_ as opposed to yourphotos, if ya know what I mean :-) > > scary stuff! > > ann > > > > > On 9/10/2015 10:35 AM, Darren Addy wrote: >> >> Got off work yesterday to find central Nebraska to be in quite the >> supercell environment and had a fun little local chase until about an >> hour after sundown. Here are two images from the outing. Both were >> taken from essentially the same spot. >> >> I parked my car at a rest area on eastbound Interstate 80 south of >> Grand Island, NE and ran across the 4 lanes of traffic to get some >> powerlines out of my shot. Then I found myself too low and the 9-foot >> tall cornfield was obscuring my view of the bottom of the storm. >> Fortunately, there was an old thick tangled wild grapevine that had >> grown around the barb wire fence and fence post that was sturdy enough >> for me to stand on that got me high enough to shoot over the tops of >> the corn. This is looking almost due north. I opted for a B&W >> rendering of that shot: >> >> >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/20664233023/in/dateposted-public/ >> >> Returning to my car I saw another cell to the west that was nearly >> scraping the ground and was backlit by the setting sun. I ran down the >> median towards it to get some artificial lights, from the rest area to >> my left, out of the frame. I had to work fast because this whole storm >> system was moving rapidly to the southeast. >> >> >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/21098836120/in/dateposted-public/ >> >> These were just two of the supercells that were scattered all over >> central Nebraska that evening and some produced damaging hail. I >> haven't seen it yet, but I'm told that my daughter's car, a newish >> little Toyota in Kearney, was totaled by the hail there. >> >> Today is going to have severe storms nearby again, but this time >> powered by a cold front. I hate cold front setups, but depending upon >> the timing I may be out again this evening. This is the storm season >> that just keeps on giving... >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- Life is too short to put up with bad bokeh. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
