In the eye of a tornado? Well, kind of … see photos
Aug 15th, 2008 by spaceagesage
During my childhood years in Oklahoma, where I lived deep in the heart of Tornado Alley, I grew up with tornadoes more common that rainbows. I spent hours with my family in basements, underground shelters, or in the man-made cave on my grandparent’s farm waiting for the danger to pass. I’ve seen three funnels dancing up and down in the air a mile away and, at another time, a single funnel that seemed to my childhood eyes to be half a mile across, but none of those ever touched down near me.
I even caught a tornado with my camera (making the cover of my local newspaper) in a part of Colorado where we don’t usually get tornadoes. But a few weeks ago, I completely missed what looks like a funnel right above me as photographed some interesting clouds. I just downloaded them onto my computer and realized “that cool looking swirl” was more than wind.
Here is the first photo — look at the center:
Now here is an enhanced version purposely overexposed with my photo software to bring out the contrast more:
And enlarged:
This cloud swirling was over in a flash, and the storm brought a lot of wind and hail, but nothing more.
I wonder: If what looks to be a funnel had become stable and big enough for me to really notice at the time, how long I would have stayed out there taking photos of such an amazing event — a tornado recorded from below as it happened?
Hmmmm … that would have been too cool, but I probably would have had to change my writing name from “SpaceAgeSage” to “TornadoPhotoWacko.”
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Now a question for you, dear readers, what makes you want to push the envelope and do something crazy?
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Wow! Cool pic. It’s fun to examine my pics after and discover things I never saw while I was shooting. My favourites are close ups of flowers, and then discovering after the fact beautiful little bugs amongst the petals.
Okay to answer your question: when I have finally made the decision that I have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain.
TornadoPhotoWacko — Ha ha! I’ve seen the movie Twister about a dozen times. Fascintated with tornadoes… never experienced one though.
I can’t remember anything crazy that I’ve ever done. I’ve taken risks but never thought of them as crazy. I took those risks because I knew I just had to do it.
I like TornadoPhotoWacko, SAS!!
Like Davina, I don’t think I’ve done anything really crazy in my life. Would trapeze (once time only, basic swing & dismount move) count?
Or once while hiking in Yosemite, my husband and I suddenly noticed a big bear and a cub to the side of our well-traveled trail. I just stopped and watched, and watched and watched — they looked so peaceful and seemed to be watching me back. Jeff made me move along b/c it wasn’t really safe to be that close to a bear and its cub. (sigh) I didn’t feel like I was doing something crazy but looking back now, maybe I was!
Hi, Urban Panther —
Being at “nothing to lose” stages can be quite interesting, yes?
Hi, Davina —
Time to get a little crazy then!
I liked that movie, too. The cow flying by was silly, but fun.
Hi, Linda —
LOL! Bears look peaceful because they are used to being at the top of the food chain. Trapeze? That’s just sounds scary to me. I held my breath too much as a kid watching them.
That was a fantastic picture. I’m definitely more risk-averse than you, because if I took the image, it would be too blurry because I’d be running away at the same time 🙂
Al —
I don’t know, I think it would be pretty compelling and hypnotic, no matter what your risk aversion!