Roping out stage of the Cheyenne tornado

AMAZING. I actually found this photograph and commented on it last summer, but here it goes again.... This is one of the most amazing scenes ever captured on film, no doubt about it. In this version however, the sign pokes up in the bottom, bit distracting, might want to crop it like you had in your original submission.

 

Cheers, it makes me smile (or stare in wide eyed terror) when I see such fantastic photography. I wonder what Bresson would say to this "decisive moment"??

Amazing! I would do some more touch up work in Photoshop or pay good money to have some one else do it if you didnt have the the right tools yourself. A once in a lifetime photo.

I could not resist. I hope you dont mind that I cleaned it up a little.

Really outstanding. An amazing sight, to be sure, and very well photographed to boot. One of the best tornado shots I've ever seen.

This is really a wonderful photograph

 

 

This photo is unreal--I would like to extend my hearty congratulations and offer another cleaned up version. An amazing spectacle to behold... I would love to see a hi res scan of it.

 

 

Great shot! One envies the time, place and position of the photographer after seeing a lovely shot like this. Tho im beginning to wonder why is it that photo.net elves are selecting landscape photographs only? It seems to be the case for the past 4 weeks or so.

It's literally a master stroke, well done

The image is of course beautiful, but countless others have no doubt pointed that out in the ten years since it was taken.

 

What really heartens me about this image is that is was taken with a decades old, manual camera. With all due respect to Philip Greenspun et al, it's better than 95% of the images I've seen on this site, almost all of which were taken with expensive Canon or Nikon computerized systems.

 

Perhaps I'm just consoling myself because I just passed up a very good deal on an Elan II setup in favor of a 30-year old Minolta SRT :)

Ditto on the great shot! As far as the "You coulda, shoulda" comments--It's a tornado; everything else is minor. I'm from the east, don't even know if i would have wanted to get out of my car and snap one.

I must take issue with the "...let me clean that up for you..." respondents; they're the reason I would never allow any of my images to be posted to this gallery. I find unsolicited editing such as this quite disrespectful of one's work.

I think I disagree with some of the posters above regarding the sign in the bottom of the frame...I think it adds an important sense of scale and perspective that the image would otherwise lack. But it's a great picture in any case!

I just looked through your other photos on the site -- this is a very fine and impressive set of photos. Bravo. You have a really keen eye for weather.

 

But just out of curiousity: how is it that you end up near so many tornadoes?

I prefer this one: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=45780

Just post under your images "please dont edit or change this picture". I did not deface the photograph. I just cleaned it up. Nothing more than a color lab would do.

Great shot. The light makes it. That's quite a hobby you have.

 

In 1990, when this photo was taken, the Canon A-1 was precisely an auto-everything computerized camera--aperture preferred, shutter preferred, and program mode options, lots of plastic and electronics. Just center-weighted metering and no autofocus in general yet, though Canon did make a 35-70mm zoom with primitive IR autofocus.

PLEASE DO NOT "clean up"..it is idiotic to mess with such an amzing picture.

First of all a great, awe-inspiring photo. And no I am not going to post a 'cleaned-up' version. But whats the problem with that anyway? I mean, its not as if the cleaner-uperer is destroying the original, their just creating slightly different versions for others to see how the photo looks without their percieved distractions! I personally don't see a problem with it, but anyway, its a great photo and the 'other' versions look good as well.

I don't see why this photograph needs to be "cleaned up" at all. OK, maybe if you're thinking strictly of an art piece to hang on the wall, but I think it is much more powerful just as it is. When you look at it, you know you're seeing the real thing, and the sign helps to put the size, power, and majesty of the tornado in perspective. The added touches make it look phony in my opinion. But, being a midwesterner, I've seen my share of tornados; perhaps someone who has never experienced one wouldn't notice that the touched up photographs just don't look real. I want to commend the photographer on his courage or his insanity, whichever it was, that allowed him to pause long enough to take this photograph.

There is one school of thought which warns that the tornado could "pull up the rope" and drop it right where the photographer is standing. I'm not suggesting that we all crawl in a hole for the rest of our lives... just maybe when there are tornados out?

 

But the image is spectacular.

Need more be said?

Robert, your clean up changes a record shot into a half decent photo. Wether or not you leave the post on is optional but getting rid of the ?scratches was much needed. However they may be some feature of a tornado that I'm not aware of.

 

Fred

It is a delight of technology that when discussing an image it is possible to demonstrate what one is talking about by posting ones suggested crop/edits.

 

Yep its a gripping picture. Only because its some scary huge thing that is stretched across the sky.

 

Is it a great photo. I'm not sure. Its blurred, maybe camera shake. The uploaded scan is covered in muck. It is probably scratched too. One wonders about the colours of the scene. During storms the light can change rapidly and give fabulous lighting of landscapes. To my mind though this image may have been poorly stored and the colours have probably been affected over the 10 years since it was taken.

 

In summary I feel this is a lousy photo of a stunning subject. But often famous photos depend more on the subject than on the skill of the photographer. Its a pity because so much could have been made of the situation.

 

Next time (!) Use a tripod or support the camera on your car. Take a record shot or two. Then try to make the picture interesting with some foreground object for comparison. Could I do better? No. I would not have stopped to get out my camera. I mean look at the thing!!!!!!

 

The comments to POW are rather tame. We should be looking VERY critically at the pictures posted. It goes without saying that they should be good, but have you ever seen a perfect picture.

 

Everyone has their opinions and are equally valid.

Until you look critically at other photographs your own photography will not improve.

 

Right Sam now its your turn!!

Tut-tut. Yes this is a dreadful photo. It really should have had a young smiling caucasion couple dressed in red flannel sitting on the hood of a bright blue DeSoto in the foreground to give a sense of scale and provide that cheery human touch.

To all you armchair hoot-owls, this is not a "landscape". (Apparently you had to be told.) This is a PHOTOGRAPH of a rather rare natural phenomenon. As such, it is just about the best example I've seen. I doubt if mawkish pathos was in the mind of the photographer at this moment. It is not a "record" shot in the sense that a crime scene photo is. It is a "record" of the photographer's skill and tenacity in orchestrating his own confrontation with the forces of nature. I find it ever so much more visually stimulating than photos of flags stuck in the snow on some terrestrial peak or even the dust of a lunar sea.

Could it have been a better photograph? It's already as good as it gets. Could it have been "artier?" Maybe, but why ruin it?

The "improved" versions of this photo disturbed me greatly. This was not your work, and to alter it was inappropriate. I am sure the photographer would have removed the foreground object if he had WANTED TO.

One thing I failed to mention in my original post was what an awesome (in the truest sense of the word) image I thought this was. Nice shot, Ian.

 

I fully expected my comments regarding editing to be something of a lightning rod; I wasn't disappointed. Maybe it would be appropriate for the "powers that be" to include a checkbox designating "Okay to edit this image". This subject obviously has strong supporters in both camps; my PERSONAL feeling is that it's overstepping the bounds of critique when you essentially alter an image for the sake of making a point (regardless how insignificant one feels the alteration to be). Digital technology aside, there exist better ways to engage in discourse reagarding the asthetic and technical merits of creative endeavors.