tornadoes

Posts tagged
with tornadoes

Photography

Sinister Storms and Twisters Disturb Rural Landscapes in Dramatic Black-and-White Photos by Mitch Dobrowner

Shooting solely in black-and-white, Mitch Dobrowner (previously) documents storm cells, tornadoes, and other menacing weather events at peak destruction. Funnel clouds plunge to the ground in spindly tunnels and churning clouds frame bright bolts of lightning. Photographed in the plains and rural regions, the images highlight a range of ominous occurrences on the horizon, a chaotic contrast to the tight rows of cotton and calm, agricultural landscapes in the foreground. To see more of Dobrowner’s storm-chasing excursions, visit photo-eye Gallery and Instagram and watch this interview for insight into his adventures.

 

Photography

A Candy-Colored Cloud Hovers Over a West Texas Landscape Mid-Thunderstorm

While chasing a tornado near the small town of Earth, Texas, earlier this week, amateur photographer Laura Rowe captured this enormous cloud filtered with pastel sunlight. The candy-colored mass swells above the dusky expanse in the midst of a thunderstorm, and as Kottke notes, the serendipitous shot evokes the saturated, trippy swirls in Milton Glaser’s 1966 poster of Bob Dylan. Prints are available on Rowe’s site.

Photography

Ominous Storms Photographed in Black and White by Mitch Dobrowner

Photographer Mitch Dobrowner travels the U.S. and sets up his camera in front of apocalyptic storms that rise above rural fields in Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota. Inspired by photographers like Minor White and Ansel Adams, he captures breathtaking landscapes that remind us of nature’s raw power by juxtaposing the endless flat plains of the southern and midwest states with dramatic weather formations. Lightning strikes and tornadoes feature heavily in Dobrowner’s black and white images that at times look like moments right out of the first few minutes of the Wizard of Oz.

Dobrowner has exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and internationally since 2005 and is represented by Photo-Eye Gallery in Santa Fe and Kopeikin Gallery in LA. You can see much more of his work on Facebook. (thnx, Laura!)

 

Amazing Science

A Tornado of Fire Filmed in Slow Motion

Gav and Dan over at the Slow Mo Guys are famous for creating bizarre (and usually explosive) events in front of powerful HD slow motion cameras. Almost all of their videos are worth a watch, but their latest involving a spinning tornado of fire is especially great, skip ahead to 1:25 for the good stuff. Although this particular flamey vortex was created artificially using box fans, you can sometimes see real fire tornadoes in the middle of forest fires or spinning off from the plumes near an active volcano.

Photography

Dramatic Tornadoes of Light Photographed by Martin Kimbell

Martin Kimbell is a photographer from England who utilizes LEDs and long exposure techniques to create airborne light forms that seem like trails of otherworldly spacecraft. The photographs were created with a surprisingly low tech method: hoops lined with LEDs that are hurled into the air. Kimbell was inspired early on by the work of Arizona-based photographer Stu Jenks who uses light and fire to create similar tornado-like images. You can see more of Kimbell’s work over on Flickr.

 

Art

A Tornado of Repurposed Wood Sweeps through Art Bogotá

Created by Colombian artist Otoniel Borda Garzón, this towering 40 foot (12 meter) torando of scrap wood was installed last year as a centerpiece at the Bogota International Art Fair. Garzón is known for his twisting organic vortices constructed primarily from old pieces of lumber that seem to dominate gallery spaces, an ongoing series of work he refers to simply as Reserva. You can see more of this twisting sculpture over on Behance.