It snowed!

I think this (Flicker?) was just as surprised as everyone else was today by the snow. i shot this off my balcony when it was at its heaviest. it will probably be gone tomorrow.

-Steve

Panhandle Skies Photo featured in Popular Photography!

It’s a great feeling to open a national magazine and see one of your photos featured inside. But what if it is a critique?

As a photographer looking for national exposure, getting critiqued is an important part or recognition and if you can’t stand the heat - well - you know the rest ...

I sold this photo to Popular Photography for use in their monthly feature “The Fix” knowing they would use it as a lesson of what not to do. In fact I agree with them that the image was a bit over-saturated, and I was curious to see what their “fix would be.

As I suspected, they de-saturated it to make the sky not so orange, but they also let the horses fall into the shadows.

Although I agreed with their take on the sky, I don’t know if I like what they did with the horses.

I understand their reasoning, hoping the viewer will discover the horses (almost by accident) almost as an afterthought - subjective to the sunset, but IMHO - the point of the photo was not the sunset or the horses but how all the elements came together to make for an elegant and striking photograph.

So which do you like better?

The original or the fix?

Personally I think the horses look a bit too dark - but the sky looks does more natural.

In any event its an honor to be in the magaziine and hope its just the first of many more to come.

My version:



Their version:



I also eliminated the distracting telephone pole in the distance.

See the full article HERE.

There are a lot more "Fixes" in the April issue. If you are a serious pro photographer or an amateur wanting to hone your craft, do yourself a favor and buy this issue today!

LINK HERE

Lubbock Severe Weather Meet: Part 2

Inside the Science Spectrum, it was packed with all kinds of weather exhibits and booths (NWS Lubbock,, local media) and tables where the kiddos could learn about weather and how it works. Down the hall the NWS was doing annual spotter's training.



I made my way from exhibit to exhibit and introduced myself to some of the local storm spotters. We traded cards and stories and for a moment I actually didn't resent being in Lubbock. (again I kid)

These are some of the South Plains Ham spotters:



But the highlight of the event was the showing of "Storm Spotters" in the IMAX theatre. I had seen Red Flag there a few years ago and the experience was one I'll never forget. If you haven't ever experienced an IMAX movie, please put it on your bucket list of things to do before you die, because it is pretty amazing.

As my kidnappers and me found our seats in the "sweet spot" where it feels like the entire screen envelopes you, I was surprised to see sitting just behind me another Amarillo weather chaser Steve Miller! I turned and Next to me was another chaser I knew David Drummond. We shook hands and laughed and talked about what a coincidence that we would all be at the same weather event at the same time. Actually, it made sense since we are usually (during the Spring) bumping into or passing by each other chasing the same storms.

Here is a shot of me and my kidnappers, Dale & Shelley Stanton: I'm the one with no hair and totally satisfied grin on my face.
Maybe Lubbock ain't so bad after all.




The movie was amazing, it felt almost like you were out in the storm, and except for some scenes on the Monsoons in India (which seemed out of place in a movie called Storm Chasers) it had the effect of totally curing me of the late Winter blahs.

We left sunny Lubbock and headed back north to armadillo town but not before I snapped this tornado's eye view of fellow Amarilloan and chaser Steve Miller.



Hope to see bump into Steve again - but when it happens I hope its storming.

Lubbock Severe Weather Meet: Part 1

I was kidnapped recently and dragged down to Lubbock by my sister Shelley and her newly acquired husband, Dale Stanton.
Even though the purpose of the kidnapping was to get me out of my dreary apartment and out of town ( I have the tendency to mope when it isn't storm season) I balked when I found out their plan was to spend the day in our sister city to the south.

The song "Happiness is Lubbock Texas in my rear view mirror" kept sounding in my head as they drove south with me hog-tied in the trunk so I couldn't escape (Just kidding Lubbockians) and open the door and bolt for it.

However, once we arrived in TT land I suddenly became docile enough (to unleash) and actually began to have fun.

We started by visiting the Windmill Museum, which was fun - then we went to my favorite place to eat - Fudruckers - where I enjoyed a wonderful Chipoltle Barbeque 1/2 pound burger. It was wonderful.

Then we went to the Lubbock Science Spectrum - and much to my surprise (and delight) it was "Severe Weather Awareness Day" the perfect place for a weather junkie like myself to hob-knob with my fellow weather wizards.

Outside of the Science Spectrum on display were some brand-new shiny (hail-dent free) storm chase vehicles.



I peered inside and licked on the glass as I saw them packed with all kinds of weather gizmos, and as anyone knows, I love weather gizmos!

This one was a scout vehicle for Texas Tech's Severe University Severe Weather Research Team. Get a good look at it now,, because the next time you see it, it should be covered in hail dents.



To the uninitiated it looked like someone had spent a lot of money on plumbing supplies at Home Depot, cobbled them together with some model airplane parts and strapped them to the roof.

In actuality this funky looking array of pipes and probes were weather sensing devices helpful in getting Tech's brand spanking new 38 GHz super duper digital portable doppler on wheels to the right storms (this season) at the right time.

Josh Wurman eat your heart out!



Much more compact, efficient and capable of higher resolution radar data than your average DOW, this (first of two) new radars on wheels represents the cutting edge in mobile weather sensing technology.



After talking (at length) to the engineer in charge of the Texas Tech radar project, I made a mental note to contact my friends at Popular Science Magazine about this new doppler darling because I'm sure it would make a good Tech (no pun intended) story for the mag.

I'll post more photos of this new DOW and what went on inside soon.

-Steve

Sweet Tweet and Sunset

This blog isn't just about weather - as the name implies "Panhandle Skies" has everything to do with what flies, floats or passes through these Panhandle Skies, including the odd bird and (or) aircraft.

I caught this T-37 "Tweet" today out at Rick Husband (Amarillo) Int. Airport doing some touch and gos. Not the fastest bird in the inventory but one every military jet pilot knows well. A T-37 is likely the first jet-powered aircraft any budding Top Gun first flew.

Enjoy- Steve Douglass

A Red Norther?

There was an interesting celestial conjunction tonight between venus and the Moon. I shot a few photos of it - but the real photo didn't happen until a cold front blew into the Amarillo area bringing lots of airborne Canadian real estate with it. Caught in the glow of the city's sodium vapor street lamps it added "atmosphere" to the shot making it that much more eerie.

-Steve

PS: Still no rain.

Panhandle Skies in a flying lawn chair.

My good friend Ken Hanson is crazy. He bought him a flying lawn chair suspended from a bed sheet by wires. Naturally I had a to take a few pictures. You might have seen him (and his fellow crazies? flying out and about close to sunset (when the winds are calm) down between South washing ton and Georgia streets on McCormick.














These guys have way too much fun.

Placid Plains

No rain - but plenty of color.


(C) Steve Douglass
click on the photo to enlarge.

Another classic sunset

Tonight's glorious sunset in case you missed it.

Can't beat those West Texas sunsets!

-Steve

Finally a decent sunset

I saw the clouds gathering on the horizon this evening and went out over behind Ascension Academy (as I do a lot) to see if the sunset was going to amount to something worth shooting. I was surprised to see some other amateur photogs out there, but at t he last moment a bank of clouds moved over the sun and it looked like it was going to be another dud.

However, I know from experience to just wait a bit and I was quite pleased to see the sun and clouds finally come together and give us another classic West Texas sunset.

Then I noticed the others who had come out to photograph the sunset had given up and left - before the real show had even begun. If they had just stayed around 15 minutes they would have seen this:



I call this one "The Last Ride."

8 people killed in February Twister outbreak In Oklahoma

ARDMORE — Eight people are confirmed dead in Carter County but the tornado's death toll could rise, according to Carter County Sheriff Ken Grace. Sheriff Grace said Tuesday evening there were 15 people who may have died but that was not confirmed.

The Chamber of Commerce office furniture and walls are strewn across grass after a tornado destroyed much of the city of Lone Grove in southern, Okla. on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman



Carter County emergency officials were forced to suspend the search for survivors shortly after 1 a.m. until daylight Wednesday.

“It’s just too dangerous,” Sheriff Grace said, referring to jagged metal and live wires hidden in rubble and debris. “We don’t need to be adding any more injuries to what we already have.”
Sheriff’s officials said this town of about 5,000 people was devastated when a tornado estimated to have been about a half-mile wide tore through the middle of Lone Grove, ripping buildings from their slabs, demolishing dozens of mobile homes and snapping any trees and power lines in its path.

“It looks just like any tornado footage you see on TV,” said OHP Trooper Bryant Harris, who lives in Lone Grove.
“There’s nothing left ... twisted metal, cars turned upside down, cars in trees.”
Harris, who lives just down the road from some of the most hard hit areas, said he and his family rode the storm out in a tornado shelter.

“It really does sound like a freight train coming through,” he said, describing the roar of the devastating storm.
About an hour before rescue workers suspended their search, the distraught sheriff said his men were doing all they could to clear areas and look for dozens of missing people — freeing people from debris and wrecked cars and marking bright orange “X”s on areas that had been searched. But Grace said he just didn’t have enough light or man power.

“We’ve had reports of people calling for help in abandoned fields,” the sheriff said. “We’re doing all we can.”
At least two trailer parks, and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed. One deputy sheriff said whole families were lost in one of the trailer parks, and he said he expected more fatalities to be discovered at first light.

“I’m scared to death to see what daylight brings,” the deputy said.
Lone Grove lost its only furniture store on state Hwy. 70, and all that was left of the chamber of commerce, next door to John’s Furniture, was a slab and scattered debris.
The UPS building, also on U.S. Highway 70, had part of its roof ripped off, and the town remained without power through the night.

For the most part, neighboring Ardmore - a much larger population area - was spared, but sheriff’s officials said an area north of Ardmore, near Springer, was also hit hard, including a private school, Beavers Academy.
Grace said rescue workers from all across southern Oklahoma were arriving to help out in the search and recovery efforts and extensive efforts with helicopters and grid searches would begin at first light.
Lone Grove survivors recall tornado

Lana Hartman and seven others were huddled in a small closet, about 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, in their one-story brick house when they felt a tornado roar past their house last night. No one in the house was hurt.
Hartman said those in the closet could feel wind underneath the closet door. A teenager in the closet began lifting off the ground and others had to hold her down by grabbing her T-shirt, Hartman said.

Hartman moved into the house on Tuesday, just hours before the tornado struck. Hartman's house is next to a furniture store, which was significantly damaged.
This morning, couches and recliners remained lined up in the store, but several walls and part of the tin roof and insulation is missing. John Taliaferro has owned the store for 37 years.

First storm photos of 2009

Coming home from Waco, I was briefly inside a tornado watch - which is rare February event. Although I didn't chase today, I was really, really tempted to - especially when thunderstorms began to build up all around near Eastland, Texas.

Unfortunately work dictated that I get back home and I had already driven 250 miles of a 500 mile trip and didn't relish the thought of getting back to Amarillo in ragged shape.


i did however take a few photos of the gathering storms and for a brief moment it felt like May in February. This shot was looking southeast toward the towering Q near Stamford, Texas. Nothing tornadic, but pretty none-the-less.

-Steve

Bulletin: February 19th Oklahoma Tornado Event

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Multiple tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma on Tuesday, causing extensive damage to businesses in northwest Oklahoma City and destroying several homes in the Oak Tree area of Edmond.

However, as of early evening Tuesday, no deaths or major injuries have been reported.
Moderate to severe damage was reported in the Oak Tree neighborhood of Edmond. At least six homes along Country Club Drive and Heritage Boulevard were destroyed. The National Weather Service confirmed tornado touched town in Coffee Creek near Kelly.

The Red Cross set up a shelter on Waterloo Road at the Waterloo Road Baptist Church in northern Edmond. The Red Cross is also deploying canteens for emergency responders in the affected areas.
These areas are closed to local traffic. Edmond officials said people living in damaged neighborhoods would need identification to get back in.

About 12,500 OG&E customers were without power, mostly in North Oklahoma City, Eyewitness News 5 reported.
Damage was also confirmed at a Chuck-E-Cheese pizza parlor near Northwest Expressway and Rockwell Avenue in Oklahoma City, and KOCO got several reports of roofs being lifted from homes.
"You could see it starting to form and then it started. It sounded like a train hit, and before we knew it, it was over," said a 19-year-old resident in the area. "We saw a funnel start to touch the ground."

At a Hobby Lobby store in northwest Oklahoma City, doors were blown in and torn off hinges. The front foyer ceiling collapsed, witnesses said, and lighting fell to the ground.
Tornado Forms Live On-Air Near Edmond Middle School
The storms also complicated things for school systems in central Oklahoma, whose administrators had to decide whether to bus kids home or keep them inside. Most opted to keep kids at school, and some students were still not home by 5 p.m.
More than a month away from the traditional start of severe weather season in Oklahoma, severe thunderstorms have developed across the state.

A moderate risk for severe weather was issued for much of the KOCO viewing area on Tuesday morning, and a tornado watch was issued until 8 p.m. for much of southwestern and south-central Oklahoma.
"Large hail, damaging winds and strong tornadoes are possible," said KOCO chief meteorologist Rick Mitchell.
Meteorologist Andy Wallace said there had been some discussion among meteorologists about upgrading the moderate risk for severe weather to a high risk, a rare designation even in Oklahoma.
Tornado Safety

Winter Winds

Power & Light

In case you missed tonight's sunset (and it was gorgeous) here it is. Unfortunately when it set I didn't have an unobstructed view of the horizon, but it was pretty none-the-less.

-Steve

Sunset Sortie

Prairie Dog Town Fork Of The Red River

Morning Doves

Anybody seen Bob?

Dusty Dry Cold Front

A dry cold front pushed through the Panhandle at sunset tonight pushing ahead of it a band of dust, that most likely was once Canadian soil. Although no moisture is expected, it did make for an interesting sky.

-Steve Douglass