Roping out stage of the Cheyenne tornado

 

To Matthew,

 

Maybe you'd be better off moving to Africa and joining a pack of gorillas, so you wouldn't have to deal with another annoying human. I found your post very disturbing. As a portrait photographer, I take your remarks very personally. I take my profession personally. I love what I do and it comes from having a genuine appreciation of people. Photography is my art... the camera, my paintbrush, evoking emotion better than any medium I can think of. Pictures are meaningful if they make you feel something, despite any technical flaws. I will take any advice given to me in the manner of criticism, if by through that knowledge, I am better equipped to make a better image of what I find interesting. The content of my photographs are of my own discern. As a photographer, I find relationship to subject more interesting than any technical flaw. I appreciate the content of any picture. The whole point of a picture is to see it through someone else's eyes. Furthermore, you were drawn to the tornado picture due to the mountains you've climbed, and the deserts you've hiked. I find people fascinating. I look at a picture of my father that I took, or a precocious little toddler with ringlets in her hair, and I remember that exact moment in my life and that moment I saved in somebody else's life. I look for a person in an image, not what they look like.

 

Living among mountains and trees doesn't teach you anything but how to wipe your butt with an oak leaf. You learn only by interaction with other human beings. You form your own opinion only on the basis of others. I wouldn't combine people photography with advertising photography, that would be unfair. I'm not selling anything with my photographs, I'm only telling the truth. I'm disgusted on how critical and condescending some of my fellow photographers can be. It's a shame all these people share the same passion and yet they can't see beyond anyone else's view but their own.

 

Matthew, you are really freaking out on this manipulation thing... what's the big deal? LIGHTEN UP or get some prozac for your anti-social a**.

 

The most commented on photo of POW to date!

 

Why?

John--Because it doesn't look like a camera ad.

John, I think this one is the most commented on because of the technical flaws. You did an excellent job of being fair while pointing out those flaws. Other people seem unable to look beyond the flaws to see the destructive beauty this photograph captured. This resulted in a bunch of passionate people arguing their beliefs, with the photo as the catalyst.

 

At least this photo has made people think.

To quote Samuel Dilworth... "Tornados of this nature happen every day somewhere in the world, and they are all basically the same. They have no individual characteristics or personality traits which can be immortalized on film."

 

One thing is for sure, Samuel hasn't spent very much time observing nature.

I had great fun reading all this. Well most of it anyway. I liked the picture, I really did, but would have altered it (cleaned it up) myself prior to posting I guess. Criticism I am not afraid of but quite a few people got out of context in the post-ups.

 

I do have to disagree with Rikki. You CAN actually learn a LOT up in the mountains or in the woods, alone. I am not wiping my butt with an oak leaf but I learn more about myself and nature when I am out and about. I am a people person too but can be sick of people sometimes living in a major city. You shouldn't be personally offended by the previous poster who didn't like people pics - it just wasn't his bag. I personally like people pics but rarely see one that touches me. And I work at a pro lab dealing with pro's on a daily basis.

Your dissing him was as embarrassing as his posting but even more so your dissing the fact that you learn a lot from being alone as well as constantly in touch with other people. I would rather be alone than be in uninspiring company. Thankfully I have a lot of inspiring friends...

 

Whoops - now I got out of line here!

 

When is the next picture up for scrutiny?

I look forward to the picture and the subsequent inundation of it in following post-ups.

 

Henrik Rundgren (part time pro and 3/4 amateur)

;-)

 

 

 

I'm going to comment on the comments. Somebody criticized people who just said Wow and nothing else. I think that it is good to encourage photographers by saying something nice. Somebody could say Wow and then ramble on telling people what they already know. A single word is better than rambling.

 

Some people have criticized technical aspects about this picture. The comments are useful, but it is still a great picture despite its defects. Bob Dylan had a lousy singing voice, but he was a great song writer. It is possible to mess up in one area and still, overall, be talented. Ideally, you want to fix your defects to become better.

 

I would like it if the general public liked my pictures. There are some judges or art who are not experts on art, they're not articulate, but their taste matches the general public's taste. Their input is useful.

WOW! I am terrified of tornadoes and this picture really seemed to put me right in the midddle of it! The lighting and position are wonderful! Amazing shot! you have talent! Wonderful!

I always feel lucky when I come across an image that arrests my thought and provokes me to think about the forces of nature on a purely survival level.

This image has all the makings of a great amateur photo: the timing, the imperfections, the simplicity of equipment, the impact. The fact that the photographer became excited enough to shoot this image in the face of such a threatening situation earns my respect. Many would have simply split for cover, afraid of hurting themselves of their precious gear.

Let's just take it for the amazing image that it is, and stop trying to fix it.

Well everyone else has thrown in their two cents. What does this have to do with Bresson? It's a tornado. And as for the guy who says you can't learn anything but how to wipe your butt by being up in the mountains? I'm in shock! Where do you come from? You'd better learn a lot more than that before you try to test your theory. Let's see . . . how to ford a stream, how to cook a meal, catch and clean fish, use an ice axe, self arrest, identify avalanche dangers, avoid hypothermia, build a shelter, tie 30 different kinds of knots, learn which plants are edible/poisonous, how to navigate with a compass, without a compass, read a map, find a source of water, filter water, store food away from bears, behave around bears, identify different birds and other beasts, should I go on? Let me guess, you are not a Sierra Club member? You should read some Thoreau or SOMETHING!

Wow! Risking life and limb for his art! ; )

 

Congrats & that's one weird tornado!

This picture is onthe January page of the 2001 Weather Guide Calendar. It is not cropped or digitally manipulated as in the comments, above. There are also no scratches, dust specks. Actually, more of the road is visible on the calendar than on the picture shown here. The picture is cropped on the right side probably because of the aspect ratio of the calendar. It would be great if there were more detail and the image were sharper, but the image is great as is.

 

Congratulations on being selected for this great calendar. I've been buying it for a few years now.

 

By the way, last year there was a funnel cloud here that looked just like that tornado, except mirrored (the turn was in the opposite direction from my vantage point). It missed becoming a tornado by about 15 feet (it didn't quite touch the ground).

Do caralho essa foto, parece que o lance é de mentira tah ligado!!! O lance é ver ela chapado tah ligado.Eh bem mais afu, fuma um beck e olha o lance curtindo uma viagem e tal...

Best photo i have seen for a long time,

Wish i had seen this myself.

Maurice Crookall

the best image here. manages to be both ordinary and extraordinary. keep chasing tornados...

I am amaze by both photo and the comment. There actually some one withness mother nature power at work and this person happen to be a photographer that capture this amazing once alifetime photo that brought foreward to share this amazing momment. Which we are lucky to view. To anyone who comment on so much neg. comments, I challage them to put up more amazing photo of mother nature destrucing power on photo.net.

If I have learned nothing else here, it is that I should have never uploaded those flatbed scans of prints to my own portfolio the other day.

Fabulous job! Perhaps you're one of those danger seekers who actually hunt down tornados? If so, I beg you not only to be careful, but to take more amazing photos such as this one! Being from North Carolina, I remember looking out my window, up into the dark clouds and actually observing the twisting of the funnel (the funnel that would never form *thank God). At that age however, I was more interested in StarWars and, uh, StarWars and never considered snapping a pic of death knocking, or nature calling (however one wishes to think of it)? And what's with Ralph Nader editing the pic!? The ol' bloke already ruined our chances of having Gore in office!

If I'd've been out there by myself I'd've been feel'n might lonely!

"I lived in Kansas City for 25 years. I don't remember seeing these colours in any thunderstorms or the like."

 

You must have ducked and covered as soon as the wind picked up, eh? I've been standing in the middle of open fields when the clouds start to churn in on themselves and they DO turn green. Talk to almost any farmer about storms and you'll hear of green skys.

How could you do any better than this?

An unbelievable glimpse of natures spectacular fury. I agree that the sign adds perspective and should not be edited out of the photo. As for cleaning out the scratches on the negative, I don't think it could be done without losing important detail.

Wonderful photograph. Did you feel a sense of danger because of the proximity of the twister? What were you thinking when you took the picture?

Awesome!

I can't see arguing about colors in a web based photograph. You would be extremely lucky to post a photo that displays with accurate color across all users computers. Heck, all I have to do is change the brightness on my monitor a tiny bit to change the colors in this photo - never mind whether you scan prints or negatives, or if you know how to manipulate scanner settings. The Web is just not a great medium for displaying accuarate colors across wide swaths of users' computers. Yes, you can get accurate color matching with the appropriate software and hardware, but c'mon can you really expect that everyone will see exactly the same thing on the web - I don't think so.

 

Insisting that colors are fake is useless to photo.net visitors. One might suggest they look fake and then question the photographer - the fact is you simply don't know (it could be the picture, the scanner, file compression, photoshop, your own monitor, or your graphics card settings). Making accusations doesn't help at all.

 

On to the photo. Rather than cutting the fence out, I think it might have been interesting to have the whole thing included (beyond what is already there) - it would give the appearance that the tornado is hemmed in by the fence.

 

What I do like is the way the tip of the tornado, the fence post, and the bright orange sky all seem to converge at the same point. My eye is drawn to the bright area in the lower right - it is then led up the body of the tornado to the dark, brooding, clouds. It is this aligment of elements that I believe makes this picture insteresting and a bit different, or even better than the typical tornado profile picture.

 

I would be quite proud if I had captured this shot with my camera.