Texas Storms

[TexasShadow]

I love storms. Light, shadows, color, contrast, movement, power and occasionally moisture.

Tonight I caught my first ever rainbow. One of those 'Quick and get it now'.

http://texasshadow.smugmug.com/photos/612265408_yicRH-M.jpg

It started with this: sharp contrasting light and color against that velvet blue-gray sky,

http://texasshadow.smugmug.com/photos/612262311_mivLn-M.jpg

the rainbow,

A bit of threatening clouds,

http://texasshadow.smugmug.com/photos/612248900_55Bvi-M.jpg

then partial clearing as the sun sets.

http://texasshadow.smugmug.com/photos/612268602_ewuVp-M.jpg

With only a few sprinkles.

Now it's peaceful, breeze wafting in through windows, crickets and great horned owls out back.

Nice time to go to sleep.

[Tourmeister]

:tab One thing I miss since we live down in the trees is being able to watch the storms. I used to live down in Alvin on the Gulf Coast plains and we watched monster storms come rolling in. Many times we could see the wall of water coming right at us. We'd be running around the yard picking stuff up so it would not blow away. The cool wind would come first, dropping the temperature in a matter of moments, and blowing away anything not nailed down. Then... like someone flipped a switch, the rain would just start pouring down. The thunder and lightning could get pretty wild.

:tab During one storm, I was heading out to the car to go somewhere. Right at the moment that I stepped off the porch out into the rain, a single bolt came down just across the road in the field, maybe 75 feet from me. Afterward, I had to go inside and sit down for a few minutes. First, I couldn't see squat and my ears were ringing like crazy. Next, my heart was pounding so hard and the adrenaline flowing so thick, I felt kind of buzzy headed. There have only been a few times in my life were I was REALLY scared, and that was one of them.

:tab Another was in a storm on I-45 up by Centerville. It was one of those storms with the thick green clouds, LOTS of hail, strong gusty winds, and serious lightning. We were coming home from a trip to Arkansas and were in the truck pulling a trailer full of bikes. We were only running about 35-40mph because the rain/hail was so heavy and we could barely see the end of the hood of the truck. Lightning hit the pavement directly in front of the truck. There were glowing embers up on the hood at the base of the windshield. All four of us burly men screamed like little girls :lol2: My ears were ringing. Worst of all, my frontal vision was gone. All I could see was the residual from the flash. I had to turn my head sideways and use my peripheral vision to see where I was going. The truck cab was filled with the smell of ozone. It took a while for the heart rate to come down from that one as well... After getting home, we later found out that several tornadoes had touched down in the area where we were in the hail.

:tab I love the feeling before a storm hits. I like the way the air feels. I like the way the contrast around everything changes. It is always cool to see white birds flying against a backdrop of dark storm clouds, or how trees will look extra green. I love standing outside as storms approach and just smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling and even tasting it as it comes. Many of those sensations trigger intense memories from growing up in Central Texas and experiencing some wild storms. I also love being in the woods during a good rain, everything changes. There is just something about the power of storms that I find almost irresistible. I don't know if it is the physics geek/nerd in me or the five year old kid in me with his face pressed to the screen door waiting for the next thunderclap to give him goose bumps? I know they can do incredible damage and end people's lives, but there is just something about them that rocks! :zen:

[TexasShadow]

:tab I love the feeling before a storm hits. I like the way the air feels. I like the way the contrast around everything changes. It is always cool to see white birds flying against a backdrop of dark storm clouds, or how trees will look extra green. I love standing outside as storms approach and just smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling and even tasting it as it comes. Many of those sensations trigger intense memories from growing up in Central Texas and experiencing some wild storms. I also love being in the woods during a good rain, everything changes. There is just something about the power of storms that I find almost irresistible. I don't know if it is the physics geek/nerd in me or the five year old kid in me with his face pressed to the screen door waiting for the next thunderclap to give him goose bumps? I know they can do incredible damage and end people's lives, but there is just something about them that rocks! :zen:I share those same responses. I've been pulled back into the house under cover from standing outside feeling the electricity climbing over my skin and hair, and a wild grin on my face. Been told a few times that I'll probably die from a lightening strike. :mrgreen: One value of my place in the open is the nearly undisturbed 360-degree panoramic view of the sky. It is an outdoor theater for storms and sunsets. Great for Giant Sensory Receptors. ;-)

I'll posit that it originates from some primal stirrings, or from that feeling of natural power of the elements, a form of dualism and opposites: a wild power that we cannot control, beauty and the beast, an overlap of elemental subjugation and liberation, an ordered chaos, an elemental symphony of foreplay, climax, finale and post-storm tranquility.

Pop psychology aside, it stirs and captures some of us enraptured, and strikes uncontrollable fear in others. Regardless, it's primal. And beautiful.

[Manfred]

When the kids were little and we lived in Denton County, thunderstorms were the norm in the summer (our insurance company told us the average life of a residential roof was 18 months!). My wife and I used to sit on our front porch - no trees to block the view in north Texas - and watch the lightening and clouds and rain and feel the house shake as the Lord shook the skies. We hear thunder a couple of times a year since we moved to Houston. And lots of trees that block most of the sky - and keep the hot summer sun off my roof :-)

[Janet]

Elzi, You remember that storm you took a picture of in Tennessee? The one with the sun shining on it?

HOW EXCITING! I could have stood out there all night looking at that and feeling the electricity in the air!

[poser]

I'm with you guys. I love watching storms roll in, and once its starts raining, I like to sit in the garage and watch it

[gotdurt]

:tab I love the feeling before a storm hits. I like the way the air feels. I like the way the contrast around everything changes. It is always cool to see white birds flying against a backdrop of dark storm clouds, or how trees will look extra green. I love standing outside as storms approach and just smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling and even tasting it as it comes. Many of those sensations trigger intense memories from growing up in Central Texas and experiencing some wild storms. I also love being in the woods during a good rain, everything changes. There is just something about the power of storms that I find almost irresistible. I don't know if it is the physics geek/nerd in me or the five year old kid in me with his face pressed to the screen door waiting for the next thunderclap to give him goose bumps? I know they can do incredible damage and end people's lives, but there is just something about them that rocks! :zen:
I'm with ya 110%. There really is little that I enjoy more than a good, powerful storm... Never mind that hail might ding my car or crash a skylight on my house; strangely enough, I find it to be worth it... I've actually considered, and still consider, getting a meteorology degree, and start chasing storms as a hobby. Funny, tornadoes are one of my greatest fears, yet also one of my greatest interests, and I'd give almost anything to stand before one :zen:

While I lived in AZ I was treated to the big, open skies, and while the storms there were pretty weak, it was cool to watch them form over the mountains and roll into the valleys, and especially cool to watch from a high elevation. I've been pretty disappointed with the storms in the Austin area in the last 6 years I've been here though. I've actually been tempted to watch for fronts etc forecast for the panhandle, then take a few days off and head up there with the camera.

[Gilk51]

Oh, well, I thought this was about Texas DL-650s and DL-1000s... :shrug:

[Tourmeister]

:tab I have long fantasized about having an observation tower, kind of like the fire towers you see in the national forests in places, that stands above the trees. I would like to have the windows that flip up and out on all sides. Of course it would be well grounded... It would have a 360 degree view.

[M38A1]

Great pictures. :clap:

I think we are all on board for the beauty and power of mother nature. I go into sensory overload with a good storm approaching from the North or West. The colors seem to bring the sky to a point of being alive, and I'm watching an event that is much like the millions of others that have happened and the millions to happen in the future. But they are all different, and unique in their own beautiful way.

[Beemer Steve]

Oh, well, I thought this was about Texas DL-650s and DL-1000s... :shrug:

Chuck I think you need to set an appointment with IDR The title clearly says Texas Storms Not Stroms:doh:

[dutchinterceptor]

Good stuff Elzi! :thumb:

When storms are coming I tend to be the one that runs outside to watch while everyone else heads for cover. Noticed this rainbow on my way home one day and frantically tried to find a decent place to pull over for a shot before the bottom dropped out.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e81/Dutch9090/2004%20VFR/VFRRainbow-1.jpg

[Richard_]

The rainbow pics are excellent.

[TexasShadow]

:tab I have long fantasized about having an observation tower, kind of like the fire towers you see in the national forests in places, that stands above the trees. Tangent.....
I did fire tower duty one summer while living in Maine (worked for the Me Forest Service two years). Spent most of the time in a tower on Streaked Mountain in Buckfield. I'd drive a well-equipped old army Jeep up the trail, over granite ledges and walk the remaining 1/2 mile in to the tower. Climb up about 75 feet, push up the wooden door in the bottom floor and make myself at home for several days (had relief every 4 days). My friends were the big azimuth in the middle of the room and all the voices in my head (which sang a lot in the middle of the day ;-) ).

I chose to sleep in the tower because of the bears; they were all over the place (place was covered with wild blueberries and blackberries). And I just liked the feeling of being 'suspended' in air at night. I'd collect weather data and radio it in three times/day. But I could see the electrical storms coming in from 360 degrees, hundreds of miles away.

If you can imagine looking down over green-covered pinnacles -some sharp, most of them rounded. As if a great expanse of forest green velvet had been dropped and slowly settled with puckers and peaks and then stayed that way. Then seeing masses of clouds, various shapes and hues, inch their way across the horizons as if there was a different dimension between the green waves below and the sky above. And then seeing pink, silver-blue and sometimes red streaks of lightening stab the green velvet below. And hear the rumbling tumble over the cloth. It was something that is indescribable.

Of course, the tower was like a thumb sticking up; better yet, a middle finger waving at the storm, "Nanee-nanee-boo-hoo!!!" A target. The roof of the tower had three lightening rods with big fat cable running down the struts and into the granite rock below. But sometimes it was still like standing in the midst of an electrical maelstrom. I recall being blinded many times from nearby strikes and the smell of ozone was like my personal cologne.

Once we had a wicked storm. A frenzy that had no discernible pattern of lightening strikes: they just kept coming and coming from every direction. I was having trouble keeping track of them all and watching for smoke columns. Radio was useless; only static. And I knew better than to be holding anything in my hands, or even stand near anything metal. I felt like I was in the middle of some crazy whirlwind and about ready to go for a ride in the sky.

I had shut all the windows and stood halfway between one wall and the azimuth waiting for this to end. The next thing I knew there was a blinding blue-silver lightening ball on the edge of the azimuth. It was running round and round on the edge of the flat metal circle of the azimuth like a hellion chased by a demon. The hairs on my arms and all over my body had raised and I could feel a tickling sensation crawl over my skin; the hairs on my head had separated and were floating in the air. I thought I was a gonner.

Then the world exploded. I found myself sitting on the floor, my ears ringing with no other sound, my heart pounding like a clock out of control, a sharp acrid odor in my nose, vision blurred, and a bloody nose. Nor could I move. I sat there leaning against the wall for what seemed forever. Lightening and thunder still dancing and a cold wind whipping through one smashed window. Hardly any glass inside; most of it was outside. And I had to pee.

After pulling myself up and sitting in my chair I waited until the storm eased and then tried the radio. All **** broke loose; lightening strikes everywhere and frantic calls to the tower. Where was I? I had a date with Saint Elmo's fire in the tower. I'm getting on the azimuth now.

This was one of the few times they sent up a plane to help spot the fires. I could see spirals of smoke here and there, but most of them were extinguished in short time by the rain that fell. A gentle rain, but it lasted all that afternoon and into the evening.

Another ranger came up the next day to repair the busted window and brought me ice cream and iced tea in his cooler. He said I looked like a drowned rat and smelled like an electrical fire. I called him names.

That was my first experience with St. Elmo's fire. The second is another story........

[tricepilot]

Jeepers Elzi stop writing like that. Forced me to spend half the evening catching up on your blogs

:giveup:


My only experience with St. Elmo's Fire has been inside the cockpit of a KC-135 somewhere over Alaska :eek2: during a thunderstorm

[gotdurt]

Tangent.....
I did fire tower duty one summer while living in Maine (worked for the Me Forest Service two years). Spent most of the time in a tower on Streaked Mountain in Buckfield. I'd drive a well-equipped old army Jeep up the trail, over granite ledges and walk the remaining 1/2 mile in to the tower. Climb up about 75 feet, push up the wooden door in the bottom floor and make myself at home for several days (had relief every 4 days). My friends were the big azimuth in the middle of the room and all the voices in my head (which sang a lot in the middle of the day ;-) ).

I chose to sleep in the tower because of the bears; they were all over the place (place was covered with wild blueberries and blackberries). And I just liked the feeling of being 'suspended' in air at night. I'd collect weather data and radio it in three times/day. But I could see the electrical storms coming in from 360 degrees, hundreds of miles away.

If you can imagine looking down over green-covered pinnacles -some sharp, most of them rounded. As if a great expanse of forest green velvet had been dropped and slowly settled with puckers and peaks and then stayed that way. Then seeing masses of clouds, various shapes and hues, inch their way across the horizons as if there was a different dimension between the green waves below and the sky above. And then seeing pink, silver-blue and sometimes red streaks of lightening stab the green velvet below. And hear the rumbling tumble over the cloth. It was something that is indescribable.

Of course, the tower was like a thumb sticking up; better yet, a middle finger waving at the storm, "Nanee-nanee-boo-hoo!!!" A target. The roof of the tower had three lightening rods with big fat cable running down the struts and into the granite rock below. But sometimes it was still like standing in the midst of an electrical maelstrom. I recall being blinded many times from nearby strikes and the smell of ozone was like my personal cologne.

Once we had a wicked storm. A frenzy that had no discernible pattern of lightening strikes: they just kept coming and coming from every direction. I was having trouble keeping track of them all and watching for smoke columns. Radio was useless; only static. And I knew better than to be holding anything in my hands, or even stand near anything metal. I felt like I was in the middle of some crazy whirlwind and about ready to go for a ride in the sky.

I had shut all the windows and stood halfway between one wall and the azimuth waiting for this to end. The next thing I knew there was a blinding blue-silver lightening ball on the edge of the azimuth. It was running round and round on the edge of the flat metal circle of the azimuth like a hellion chased by a demon. The hairs on my arms and all over my body had raised and I could feel a tickling sensation crawl over my skin; the hairs on my head had separated and were floating in the air. I thought I was a gonner.

Then the world exploded. I found myself sitting on the floor, my ears ringing with no other sound, my heart pounding like a clock out of control, a sharp acrid odor in my nose, vision blurred, and a bloody nose. Nor could I move. I sat there leaning against the wall for what seemed forever. Lightening and thunder still dancing and a cold wind whipping through one smashed window. Hardly any glass inside; most of it was outside. And I had to pee.

After pulling myself up and sitting in my chair I waited until the storm eased and then tried the radio. All **** broke loose; lightening strikes everywhere and frantic calls to the tower. Where was I? I had a date with Saint Elmo's fire in the tower. I'm getting on the azimuth now.

This was one of the few times they sent up a plane to help spot the fires. I could see spirals of smoke here and there, but most of them were extinguished in short time by the rain that fell. A gentle rain, but it lasted all that afternoon and into the evening.

Another ranger came up the next day to repair the busted window and brought me ice cream and iced tea in his cooler. He said I looked like a drowned rat and smelled like an electrical fire. I called him names.

That was my first experience with St. Elmo's fire. The second is another story........
Wow, I felt like I was there... let's do it again!!!

[Janet]

Tangent.....
I did fire tower duty one summer while living in Maine (worked for the Me Forest Service two years). Spent most of the time in a tower on Streaked Mountain in Buckfield. I'd drive a well-equipped old army Jeep up the trail, over granite ledges and walk the remaining 1/2 mile in to the tower. Climb up about 75 feet, push up the wooden door in the bottom floor and make myself at home for several days (had relief every 4 days). My friends were the big azimuth in the middle of the room and all the voices in my head (which sang a lot in the middle of the day ;-) ).

I chose to sleep in the tower because of the bears; they were all over the place (place was covered with wild blueberries and blackberries). And I just liked the feeling of being 'suspended' in air at night. I'd collect weather data and radio it in three times/day. But I could see the electrical storms coming in from 360 degrees, hundreds of miles away.

If you can imagine looking down over green-covered pinnacles -some sharp, most of them rounded. As if a great expanse of forest green velvet had been dropped and slowly settled with puckers and peaks and then stayed that way. Then seeing masses of clouds, various shapes and hues, inch their way across the horizons as if there was a different dimension between the green waves below and the sky above. And then seeing pink, silver-blue and sometimes red streaks of lightening stab the green velvet below. And hear the rumbling tumble over the cloth. It was something that is indescribable.

Of course, the tower was like a thumb sticking up; better yet, a middle finger waving at the storm, "Nanee-nanee-boo-hoo!!!" A target. The roof of the tower had three lightening rods with big fat cable running down the struts and into the granite rock below. But sometimes it was still like standing in the midst of an electrical maelstrom. I recall being blinded many times from nearby strikes and the smell of ozone was like my personal cologne.

Once we had a wicked storm. A frenzy that had no discernible pattern of lightening strikes: they just kept coming and coming from every direction. I was having trouble keeping track of them all and watching for smoke columns. Radio was useless; only static. And I knew better than to be holding anything in my hands, or even stand near anything metal. I felt like I was in the middle of some crazy whirlwind and about ready to go for a ride in the sky.

I had shut all the windows and stood halfway between one wall and the azimuth waiting for this to end. The next thing I knew there was a blinding blue-silver lightening ball on the edge of the azimuth. It was running round and round on the edge of the flat metal circle of the azimuth like a hellion chased by a demon. The hairs on my arms and all over my body had raised and I could feel a tickling sensation crawl over my skin; the hairs on my head had separated and were floating in the air. I thought I was a gonner.

Then the world exploded. I found myself sitting on the floor, my ears ringing with no other sound, my heart pounding like a clock out of control, a sharp acrid odor in my nose, vision blurred, and a bloody nose. Nor could I move. I sat there leaning against the wall for what seemed forever. Lightening and thunder still dancing and a cold wind whipping through one smashed window. Hardly any glass inside; most of it was outside. And I had to pee.

After pulling myself up and sitting in my chair I waited until the storm eased and then tried the radio. All **** broke loose; lightening strikes everywhere and frantic calls to the tower. Where was I? I had a date with Saint Elmo's fire in the tower. I'm getting on the azimuth now.

This was one of the few times they sent up a plane to help spot the fires. I could see spirals of smoke here and there, but most of them were extinguished in short time by the rain that fell. A gentle rain, but it lasted all that afternoon and into the evening.

Another ranger came up the next day to repair the busted window and brought me ice cream and iced tea in his cooler. He said I looked like a drowned rat and smelled like an electrical fire. I called him names.

That was my first experience with St. Elmo's fire. The second is another story........



:clap::clap::clap:

[ed29]

dang.

[gotdurt]

Would be cool to see a storm-related photo thread. Some of my favorite personal photos involve storm clouds.

[Tourmeister]

Would be cool to see a storm-related photo thread. Some of my favorite personal photos involve storm clouds.

Uh Casey... Did you not see the opening post in this thread...?

[gotdurt]

Well, for one, it says "Texas storms", and many of my fav's come from other places... It also doesn't say "lets see your storm photos", I also kinda saw this as Elzi's thread, and since no one is posting up photos, I get the impression that others feel the same way.

[TexasShadow]

Uh Casey... Did you not see the opening post in this thread...?:mrgreen:

;-)

[gotdurt]

:mrgreen:

;-)
Sorry, guess I wasn't clear in my response to Scott... Yes, I saw Elzi's photos (duh), but the nature of the post seemed to be that this was Elzi's thread... ie: I don't go into someone's ride report and start posting my ride report ;-) If I don't see an invitation to others to post their photos, then that's how I treat it. Besides, Elzi's posts like this are deserving of their own threads :zen: ...and I hate to see them diluted by posts like, um, this one :oops:

[TexasShadow]

Sorry, guess I wasn't clear in my response to Scott... Yes, I saw Elzi's photos (duh), but the nature of the post seemed to be that this was Elzi's thread... ie: I don't go into someone's ride report and start posting my ride report ;-) If I don't see an invitation to others to post their photos, then that's how I treat it. Besides, Elzi's posts like this are deserving of their own threads :zen: ...and I hate to see them diluted by posts like, um, this one :oops:Nah. Have at it, everyone!

Thank you for the thoughtful consideration,Casey. I intended to post inviting everyone else to contribute, but today has been a zoo........ :argh:

[Janet]

On my Texas Panhandle courthouse trip.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff32/jbee101/Bike%20trips/HPIM0357.jpg

[Tracker]

Well, it's not exactly Texas, but looking out northeast towards the plains from Horn Creek in southeast CO.

http://photos.leavelles.net/photos/563384109_pGSY4-XL.jpg

[gotdurt]

Well, it's not exactly Texas, but looking out northeast towards the plains from Horn Creek in southeast CO.


Oh good, since you broke the rules, I'll follow :-P

Sedona AZ:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/274/5/f/Arrow_Banana_Tractor_by_clfry.jpg

Lots more from this trip; had some good storms roll through, and for once I had the camera :zen:

[stacie074]

Oh good, since you broke the rules, I'll follow :-P

Sedona AZ:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/274/5/f/Arrow_Banana_Tractor_by_clfry.jpg

Lots more from this trip; had some good storms roll through, and for once I had the camera :zen:

amazing shot :clap:

[Desert Skies]

Why, it's just a little ole April shower... Texas style.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/DesertSkies/AZ%2009/IMG_7263_800.jpg

[Tourmeister]

Oh good, since you broke the rules, I'll follow :-P

Sedona AZ:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/274/5/f/Arrow_Banana_Tractor_by_clfry.jpg

Lots more from this trip; had some good storms roll through, and for once I had the camera :zen:

I love the high speed fairings on the tractor!! I wonder what the story is on that bit of engineering :ponder:

[gotdurt]

I love the high speed fairings on the tractor!! I wonder what the story is on that bit of engineering :ponder:

Heh, they're not fairings... well, not technically... funny though, my oldest (3 at the time) called it an "Arrowbanana (aerodynamic) tractor" :lol2: Anyway, it's an orchard tractor; the 'fairing' is designed to prevent damage to orchard trees, etc.

[Tracker]

Oh good, since you broke the rules, I'll follow :-P

Sedona AZ:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/274/5/f/Arrow_Banana_Tractor_by_clfry.jpg

Lots more from this trip; had some good storms roll through, and for once I had the camera :zen:

I'm glad I broke the rules because that's a really cool pic.

[fortbriscoe]

Great thread. I grew up watching the skies in Northwest Texas. You can see a long way off, and the storms aren't probably any greater, but you can sure see them for a long time. My most frightening storm experience was during a commute home from work in Dallas about 25 years ago. I was stuck on Highway 114 in a huge summer thunderstorm. It was rush hour and traffic was snarled. When the sun broke through, the traffic started moving, and all I could hear was sirens and helicopter rotors. I called home on my cell, and my wife told me to hurry on home. Delta's Flight 191 had crashed just ahead of me on that freeway, touching down early and then skidding into water tanks on the north end of DFW Airport.

[Tourmeister]

Great thread. I grew up watching the skies in Northwest Texas. You can see a long way off, and the storms aren't probably any greater, but you can sure see them for a long time. My most frightening storm experience was during a commute home from work in Dallas about 25 years ago. I was stuck on Highway 114 in a huge summer thunderstorm. It was rush hour and traffic was snarled. When the sun broke through, the traffic started moving, and all I could hear was sirens and helicopter rotors. I called home on my cell, and my wife told me to hurry on home. Delta's Flight 191 had crashed just ahead of me on that freeway, touching down early and then skidding into water tanks on the north end of DFW Airport.

Wow... that was a blast from the past... I was not there but I remember it being all over the news and then later being the impetus for the development and installation of downdraft detection systems at many major airports.

[Tracker]

Great thread. I grew up watching the skies in Northwest Texas. You can see a long way off, and the storms aren't probably any greater, but you can sure see them for a long time. My most frightening storm experience was during a commute home from work in Dallas about 25 years ago. I was stuck on Highway 114 in a huge summer thunderstorm. It was rush hour and traffic was snarled. When the sun broke through, the traffic started moving, and all I could hear was sirens and helicopter rotors. I called home on my cell, and my wife told me to hurry on home. Delta's Flight 191 had crashed just ahead of me on that freeway, touching down early and then skidding into water tanks on the north end of DFW Airport.

I remember that day, too. I was driving back from Wichita Falls that afternoon.

[TexasShadow]

Oh good, since you broke the rules, I'll follow :-P

Sedona AZ:
http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/274/5/f/Arrow_Banana_Tractor_by_clfry.jpgFantastic shot :clap: Love the play of light and colors.

Sedona is one place I've always wanted to go. My ex photographed a wedding there on top of a mesa. The married couple paid to transport all the attendants to the top of the mesa for the wedding and Cleve did the photography (they paid his way down from OR, too). He spent a few days around Sedona and the photos were just breathtaking, especially with the 4x4. The detail, depth and color was...... as if you were actually there. The photos were more than just photos. More like you were looking into a portal and actually 'seeing' the landscape, the buildings, the people there. They were all rich in feeling, even the B&W's he took.

Since then, I've wanted to go there myself.

Hmm..... I have a week of ride vacation coming in September.

[maxlib]

Great stories and great pics!

Here is one from my third ship. Wish I could find the double waterspout pic I have from somewhere.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v503/maxlib/Twister_2.jpg

I feel a spiritual connection with thunderstorms. Weird, huh?

[gotdurt]

I'm glad I broke the rules because that's a really cool pic.

Fantastic shot :clap: Love the play of light and colors.
Thanks, here's another from the same trip, Somewhere north of Flag:
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs36/i/2008/263/d/7/Wailing_Stumps_by_clfry.jpg


Sedona is one place I've always wanted to go. My ex photographed a wedding there on top of a mesa. The married couple paid to transport all the attendants to the top of the mesa for the wedding and Cleve did the photography (they paid his way down from OR, too). He spent a few days around Sedona and the photos were just breathtaking, especially with the 4x4. The detail, depth and color was...... as if you were actually there. The photos were more than just photos. More like you were looking into a portal and actually 'seeing' the landscape, the buildings, the people there. They were all rich in feeling, even the B&W's he took.

Since then, I've wanted to go there myself.

Hmm..... I have a week of ride vacation coming in September.

Sedona's a really cool place... once you get away from the tourist shopping, resorts and and weekend mansions. I can suggest some places to go when you're ready... you do need a bike or a high-clearance vehicle for a lot of it though.

If you're interested in Indian ruins, I can tell you how to get to some cliff dwellings in the area too... and not dwellings with guided tours and gift shops... these are seldom visited, hike-in and look at the hand-prints in the adobe type places :zen:

[Tourmeister]

Casey, did you do some post processing on those images?

[TexasShadow]

If you're interested in Indian ruins, I can tell you how to get to some cliff dwellings in the area too... and not dwellings with guided tours and gift shops... these are seldom visited, hike-in and look at the hand-prints in the adobe type places :zen:Now, *that* I'd like! Would it require dirt bike access?

The trip in September will be on the Strom, so I expect to do only pavement duty this time. Hence, this trip may be limited to central NM. I was just thinking last night about where to go for some historical content/context.

[gotdurt]

Casey, did you do some post processing on those images?
On these, mostly just curves (basically contrast adjustment) and local contrast enhancement, maybe some dodging and burning.

Here's one from the same trip that had quite a bit of post (also taken in stormy conditions):
http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs36/i/2008/269/5/7/Passing_Time_by_clfry.jpg


Now, *that* I'd like! Would it require dirt bike access?

The trip in September will be on the Strom, so I expect to do only pavement duty this time. Hence, this trip may be limited to central NM. I was just thinking last night about where to go for some historical content/context.
The ones I know of in the immediate Sedona area are accessible by the Strom within a mile or so, depending on the site. One is paved to the parking area and almost in town, the other is nearby as the crow flies, but you'll have to drive for a while on improved dirt roads (you get to go through Jerome though!), then about 16 (or was it 18?) miles on a mild jeep road; rough in spots, but the Strom is up to it. This one is really cool and secluded :zen:

[gotdurt]

Great stories and great pics!

Here is one from my third ship. Wish I could find the double waterspout pic I have from somewhere.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v503/maxlib/Twister_2.jpg

I feel a spiritual connection with thunderstorms. Weird, huh?

Wow, that is awesome... The closest I've ever come to actually seeing a tornado/ waterspout was driving over the Lake Charles bridge one time, where I got to see a funnel cloud form and drop a little... it didn't reach the ground though.

[Tourmeister]

Casey, I bet she would like some of the places we hit North of Sedona, when we were up high looking down on the plains below. She might like that first day too...

[BexarWolf]

Here's my contribution to the Texas Storms. No processing done. I took 32 shots in a matter of 15 minutes waiting for something good to come out of it. When I look at them in a slide show, it almost looks like a movie with the clouds floating by. :lol2:

It wasn't until just now that I noticed the flock of birds flying southbound to get out of it's way.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7928/img0982v.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/img0982v.jpg/)