You know my kitty – Greenies are his cocaine!
He ate some a few minutes ago, so isn’t sure if he can stuff more into his wee frame.
His thoughts are interrupted by the hand.
He considers the possibility of a “scritching” instead of yummy Greenies.
Yep! A “scritching” it is!
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I keep sleeping through severe weather. I don’t regret it, though there is the crazy thrill of standing by an aluminum screen door in a lightning storm, behavior that defies common sense. It’s a tradition in this area.
How about where you live? Do people where you live stand by open doors or windows to watch severe storms rip down structures and trees? Or to take videos of the same?
I work smarter these days. I take a photo and crop it to get the effect of a close-up shot. Be”kool”, that’s my motto now!
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I know from my time in the US Army as a motion picture photographer that viewing action through a camera is like stepping into a different world. You lose sight of what’s happening above, below, and on either side of you. I nearly got wiped out by tanks coming off railcars, cars bearing under secretaries of this or that, and helicopter blades on these machines taking off. Of course, there was that jet engine I didn’t get sucked into by some miracle.
All those things above happened because I framed really cool shots with the wide-angle lens I preferred for all handheld shots when shooting with my Arriflex! “Images within the camera’s view are closer than they appear”. That should be engraved on all wide-angle lenses! The reviewers at the Pentagon loved these dangerous shots, though, noting they especially enjoyed my work.
I enjoy reading about your earlier life and time in the Army. There is some truth in that we all have lead many different lives within our time on Earth.
I love watching lightning storms! Where we live now, storms tend to go to the north or south of us. Very few electric storms go directly overhead. We are in The Cascade foothills at roughly 800 feet in a geologic bowl of sorts that ponds cold air, and seems to trap heat on really hots days. I remember the porch thermometer hitting 112 back in 2009. The land forms may somehow affect how the weather patterns move.
Where I live, extreme weather patterns frequently pass north or south of the town. A recent hailstorm left windrows of hail on the highway to the towns halfway between Alliance and Scottsbluff. We just got the rain.
Wise choice, Mr Andy!
Here, people tend to have hurricane parties; in fact, as soon as a hurricane warning is issued, it’s beer, rather than water, than disappears from stores’ shelves.
Oh no!
Oh yes!
In my younger days I shot high school football games for the local paper. Using a telephoto lens on the sidelines required me to learn to keep both eyes open – one at telephoto and one at normal eyesight so I didn’t get flattened. Not as dangerous as what you learned to deal with !
I’ve been known to stand in front of our west-facing window looking to see if the warned-of tornado was headed our way.
I watched a tree blow over a few feet from the window and a transformer blow up on a pole, next lot over…. I was pulled away from the window by my mother. I think I was 12 at the time.
Yikes on your photographic adventures! The younger people especially, do still probably watch the storms. Not us though. We’d been through hundreds of alerts and did react too casually. In 2011, we were in a direct hit from an EF4. The walls of the main house stood, but the back was smashed. We were in a bathroom. Outside that room, windows were shattered and glass shards were driven into the walls. Furniture was thrown 30 feet. A heavy table top was pulled out through and not seen again. Roof came off house. One twelfth of the city was destroyed, 55 dead. There’s a lengthy write up on my site and a number of pictures here and there. Things were quiet before this happened. Conditions change moment to moment. There are a number of videos on YouTube of this storm. 4/27/11. Sorry about the length of this Doug, I won’t be upset if you delete.i just want everyone to understand how serious these storms are. I credit our weather casters for saving our lives.
I’ll leave it because it is important to realize how serious things can get and why it is smart to heed warnings.
Thank you for your service, Doug! You had a very dangerous and rewarding time in the service. I have stood in windows and doors too during the big storms, its really not too smart but man you sure get the full effect from the storm! Kitty cocaine haha!
Yeah, there is a fascination for the dimensions of these storms, their power.
Deadly power!
A fascinating take on your photography. Cropping is good. I was so absorbed one that I almost walked off a cliff.
That’s pretty much a situation with photography. I never did learn to be more careful first, frame a shot, adjust for the potential hazard, then shoot. Of course, I’d shut the eye not looking through the camera lens, only opening it to establish the whole scene, namely the hazard I was unaware of.
In Minnesota it’s a time honored tradition that, when the tornado sirens go off, you’re supposed to grab a ladder and climb on the roof so you can get a better view of the tornado. At least, that’s what my husband, a native Minnesotan, told me. It helps if it’s a weekend and you’ve had a few beers while watching The Game.
I used to grab the kids and hide in the basement until the sirens finally shut off. But I didn’t grow up with severe thunderstorms, which terrified me, and tornado warnings. The kids told me later that they thought I was a little kooky since none of their friends’ parents acted like that. That said, none of my children now live in places with tornadoes! Stay safe, Doug and Andy!
That’s a variation on the tornado response I understand! My mother moved everyone downstairs. She had a container with important documents and things she thought needed to be saved from the storm, like photo albums. That was more sensible, if less interesting!