« Right Place. Right Time »

Was relatively light Friday, so I was able to finished a little early and said good bye to my day job until tuesday.  On my way home I decided to drop my local camera store (www.thecamerastore.com)  to pick up a circular polarizer for the wide lens I bought just over a month ago. I had one of these a few years ago, but it broke. I have missed the pop that this filter can bring to my photographs. Upon leaving the store looking north I saw this massive big white full of texture cloud (you know the ones, they look like they could be 10 miles tall) moving east.  With my previous blog still fresh in my mind (http://bit.ly/pZpLMv) I decided to eat my words, jet home grab my camera and race out to the prairie.  

When I was young I was terrified of storms.  It kinda all started when my family was camping at Bon Echo Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.  Swimming and lightning struck the 400 Foot cliff directly across the lake from where we were. It was one of the loudest cracks of thunder I have ever heard. I was told later by my parents that I had successfully ran on the water to then jump onto my bicycle take off in 8 different directions at once to find our camp site and locked myself in the car hiding on the floor.

Over the years I have out grown the fear. Add in photography and I have always wanted to capture that fear, the face of it.  After a number of attempts over the past couple of years I have always seemed to come up short. So I was kinda hoping but when I checked and there was no warning about yesterdays storm when I had left kind of disappointed. Decided to go to some places I have been in the past. Bright yellow fields of canola with the towering clouds over head I thought would make for a good shot. I stopped at this flooded field now seems to be a wetland. Wanted to put this new filter through it's paces with the reflections i maybe able to get. The thunder from the North sounded like carpet bombing, it was quite intense but soothing compared to the sounds of traffic and planes of the city. The little kid in me was starting to whisper in my ear that maybe we should go when the white puffy monstrosities had turned into a low dark apocalyptic rotating mass. When the lightening started to be in abundance it was time to head to the car. Standing on a peninsula of this wet land didn't seem like the smartest of ideas.  Now the fun began.  I took my next right and headed south and right again to a field of hay bails. Jumped out shot for a couple of minutes, jumped back in and took off. This game of cat and mouse with the storm went on for the next hour or so. All I can say is that I am really happy I am very comfortable driving on gravel roads.

A friend of mine, Vanessa whom I had mentioned back a few blog posts ago (http://bit.ly/oXFRNw), had gotten the opportunity to shoot with Greg Johnson from http://tornadohunter.com  Talking with her about her experiences, one thing she stressed was "if you go out, don't go alone". I realized how nice it would have been to have someone else with me yesterday, as no one really knew where I was.  When the Emergency Broadcast system message that over took  the news was saying that there is a tornado warning in effect and if you are in these particular areas take shelter, I was sarcastically yelling at the radio, " You don't say! It's just less than a kilometre behind me!"  

Even though I yet to fulfill my wish of seeing a tornado in person, this experience was nothing short of incredible. I feel like I have learnt a lot but cannot really pinpoint what "a lot" is. Maybe it has nothing to do with photography. It was something like when I was up on my hike a week ago, something deeper.  Something I feel I have been chasing for many years, and getting close to it now.  Not trying get to weird about it, and have you dive deep into my personal life. My guess is that if you are reading this maybe you do have some interest in it so I shouldn't apologize for it. Can't wait to see what the rest of the long weekend will bring! 

 

The adrenaline mixed with fear and wanting to stand my ground was almost as peaceful as it was chaotic. Enjoy viewing what I had the opportunity to experience.