Merry Christmas from Panhandle Skies.

A very happy holiday season to everyone of my good visitors and friends. I hope you enjoy the blog and will so even more during the coming year.

Thanks for all your kind comments and support.

-Steve Douglass

Lufkin hit by tornado

Tornado causes severe damage to parts of Lufkin

Posted: Dec 24, 2009 5:14 AMUpdated: Dec 24, 2009 5:45 AM

By Whitney Grunder -

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - Severe storms ripped through parts of East Texas Wednesday evening. Some Lufkin neighborhoods sustained extensive damage from a possible tornado.

Among them is the Lufkin VFW, which is now gone. The damage comes right after 10,000 dollars worth of recent tile work. A check for the construction was written Wednesday, before the storm hit.

One resident living near Gipson Funeral Home on Chestnut Street even reported seeing caskets in his backyard.

Jakoia Grimes and her children were happy to have made it safely out of their Lufkin apartment, before their entire roof collapsed. "I looked up and I just saw the light from outside and I had my girls come and sit by the door, and within minutes the entire roof caved in," said Grimes, who is now staying with family members.

Jennifer Mays watched the tornado touch down right outside Stephens Court Apartments. She described it as "massive." She said, "I couldn't believe it was so powerful to the point that it just opened up my door."

Next door, owners sifted through what remained of their welding business, part of Lufkin for 25 years. Max's Welding Shop on Denman Avenue was completely destroyed.

Owners said they can't blame God for the severe weather, and that fortunately another shop behind the building stands untouched by the storm.

"I think we're going to be able to salvage some of our equipment. I think we're going to be alright," said co-owner Betty Purgahn.

Cheddars employees also witnessed a tornado touch down in the middle of the Olive Garden parking lot. "I heard a bunch of commotion and they were talking about the patio chairs were nearly about to hit some cars so we ran to try to help," said Cheddars employee Brad Barrow.

According to witnesses, other than damaging a few of the vehicles parked in the Olive Garden parking lot, the tornado did not affect any of the buildings. The Department of Public Safety reported that the tornado lifted back up, and did not cause any injuries.

Utility crews were also working to remedy power outages caused by toppled power poles. Thursday morning, thousands of residents were without power. An Oncor spokesperson said approximately 2,500 customers were without power in the Lufkin area.

So far no severe injuries have been reported.

Christmas Lights HDR

I did a little experimenting last nighty with HDR and shot this for a client of mine.

I took six frames- one exposed properly and three under exposed and three over exposed and combined them in an HDR program.


This is the low-rez version. The hi-rez has amazing detail.

Click to enlarge.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

-Steve Douglass

Cold November morn

Grain Elevator

SAVE A STARVING PHOTOGRAPHER
BUT THIS PRINT HERE!

Blue Bird

Feed a photographer - buy this print ay Digibug Pro.

Breaking through - Palo Duro Canyon

BUY THIS PRINT BY CLICKING HERE!

Raptor Rock In Palo Duro Canyon

Although this formation is known as the "cap stone" I call it Raptor Rock for obvious reasons.

BUY THIS PRINT BY CLICKING HERE!

Talk to me Goose!

Buy a print - save a starving photographer!

Tree trimming .. Pirates of the Canyon 2009

Pirates Of The Canyon 2009

(C) Steve Douglass
BUY THIS PRINT BY CLICKING HERE!

Pirates of the Canyon Balloon Glow

(C) Steve Douglass

Snow Bird

Palo Duro Canyon Autumn Colors

Click to enlarge.






C) Steve Douglass

The hunter and the hunted ...

Ready for supper?

Cold October Morning

This little sparrow was caught trying to warm himself up on my balcony this morning.
He looked lonely.

-Steve

Alabama ANG F-16s in Amarillo

I haven't see any Vipers in Amarillo in along time. They stopped here for a gas and go - and then on to Nellis.

I'm guesing they were enroute to participate in Red Flag.

Thank's to Tac-Air for the access!

Storm Chasers Premier Tonight!

The Canadians are here!

It was just yesterday afternoon (when I was taking my daily walk in Medi-Park) I noticed that there didn't seem to be any of the usually hundreds of Canadian geese that winter here each year.

Then that evening, while I was taking a photo of the great western horizon, I noticed a large flock of Canadians off on the distant horizon.

Wouldn't it be lovely (I thought) if they would turn this way and grace my sunset with a fly-over?

Much to my surprise they turned and did just that. They not only flew right overhead (very noisy I might add) they did it twice as if they wanted everyone in town to know they had arrived. Not to mention it enabled me to get the shot here.

Thank you Canadians!

Exclusive photo of who let the balloon boy's balloon go!

If you don't like the weather ...

.. wait a few minutes.

All these photos were taken within a five hour period today.









... wait a few minutes.

All these photos were taken within a five hour period today.

So you think you had a bad day!

I saved this poor rabbit today by taking his photo. This Northern Harrier was harassing this poor jack rabbit, trying to get him to bolt so he could pounce on him - but then the raptor saw me and gave up his attack.

As soon as the Harrier gave him some space, the rabbit ran like rabbits can run and I'm sure he probably still is running.

Its' kind of cool to think that the rabbit had no comprehension of how close he was to becoming a meal and how his bacon was saved by me, a photographer who happened to be traveling down a remote dirt road at the exact moment he needed something to come by and save his life.

Serendipity or divine intervention?

I got a pretty cool photo and in return the rabbit got to live another day.

-Steve

MId October Light

Blackhawk Sunset

Partly cloudy with a chance of buzzards

-Steve Douglass

Adobe Moon

Riding Thermals ...

A hawk soars on a thunderstorm updraft.
Photographed yesterday north of Amarillo.



(C) Steve Douglass

I saw a spaceship today.

Click to enlarge:
















Just a few photographs from today's Space Shuttle/747 ferry flight after it landed at Rick Husband today. It was an breath-taking sight. I'll post more later.

Thanks to everyone for making it possible to get this close to a real spaceship.

-Steve Douglass
ALL PHOTOS (C) STEVE DOUGLASS

Cool beans!

KVII is going to use a photo I took of Palo Duro fork of the Red River as a new background for their School Net!

You can buy a print (without the School Net) by contacting me at the e-mail link above.

-Steve