Although I think I have some images that came out technically much nicer this one was hands down my best capture of the year. This image was really tough to process with the brightness in the lower right hand corner and way to much noise because the original exposures were way off but I still think it is a pretty cool shot. In this edit I left the houses at the base of the shot to give it some perspective as to the size of the funnel cloud. The shot was taken from my back deck about 5 miles from the tornado so never really any danger as long as it stayed put which it did. Overall time on the ground was nearly 20 minutes so it was awesome to watch and thankfully it never did much damage.
[Jan. 20th, 2009 04:42:27 PM]
Very happy with the score, My best of 2008 is now going to be my highest rated photo, early on thought it had a chance to stay in the 7+'s but mid week voters hit it pretty hard. I know several people have seen some of my tornado shots and I really messed up not putting one in the free study so this was my second chance to use one of these shots.
Post challenge, 27th, woohoo! Thanks everyone for the comments and the high scores. I especially got a kick out of all the Wow and Awesomes!
Statistics
Place: 26 out of 531 Avg (all users): 6.7521 Avg (commenters): 7.8286 Avg (participants): 6.8973 Avg (non-participants): 6.2807 Views since voting: 3854 Views during voting: 528 Votes: 242 Comments: 69 Favorites: 41 (view)
I'm just now seeing this. Fantastic capture. Oddly enough, seeing a tornado is on my bucket list. One (an F1) went through my mom's yard a few years ago, so the closest I've come is seeing the damage left behind (thankfully just downed trees for mom.)
Good night!!! Another comment that echos the underrated quality of this image. I'm not sure that I would want tornados in my country as I'm already obsessed with weather and to chase these would just be another obsession that would consume my life.
You did very well here and this should feature as a sighting of a lifetime. Congrats on getting it and taking the shot. You say you had to work the image a bit but I believe it rarely happens given conditions that everything works out the way you want. This is by no means a still life shot and this happens I can imagine fairly quickly. Yes it was maybe 20 minutes but. For this scene it was seconds. The houses in cram is crucial to this shot and does more to lift the image than just for scale and perspective
I can't believe voters didn't give give this at least a 7. How many times do people see an entire funnel from this vantage point. I'll. I may never understand fully what a perfect dpc shot is.
Holy cow this thing was huge! You captured it very well even though you had to work to make it better. I can't believe how damn big it is. Have you submitted this to some nature or weather magazine or website? Even National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. I've never seen such a well formed funnel cloud with this much detail.
That's got to be scary to witness, even at 5 miles away.
Incredible shot! I have few reoccurring dreams and one of them is watching a tornado from a safe distance and photographing it! This is like watching my dream come to life :)
Wow, thanks for all the post challenge comments, this was the image I knew this was the one shot I took last year that would have the most impact but it easily exceeded my expectations. Glad so many people enjoyed it! I especially liked all the Wows, Awesomes and Amazings in the comments. Thanks again!
Nice placing and score, but how did this not ribbon? :) I just can't understand it! It's a great photo in so many ways. Congratulations on your personal best!
This is truly awesome! Not only is it a capture of natures most awesome force but a beautiful image and composition. I hope it ribbons! It's something special.
Amazing capture! Expect to see this in the top20 for sure. The shape of the spout is just amazing. Though it doesn't look like a full blown tornado? Hope everyone was safe down there. (no vote)
wow. this is bad ass. I think I would have been too scard to take this photo. I love the impending doom presented by the small houses. Terrible, but thats what really makes this photo.
this has to be papa "lucky bastard" bob's entry if i remember correctly. ;)
one of the most amazing tornado shots i've ever seen!
one of *my* ribbon's. 9
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