Here's another from a different vantage point of the same tornado. Don't you Denverites know you need to hide from twisters...

http://www.examiner.com/x-5182-Dallas-Weather-Examiner~y2009m6d8-Denver-tornado-Great-pic

Don't you Denverites know you need to hide from twisters..

We try to take shelter in a covered football practice facility where possible ;-)

I'm an old Dallas hometown boy. Went to Jesuit. Go Cowboys!

50mm 1.8 (trash kit lens) Still love it though.

Nothing trashy about those pics though, sharp!

Hey Tom, the second I saw the top of the funnel cloud in your pic I thought to myself, "he must live in Colorado". Sure enough! That tornado was nuts, and the hail was huge. That's an awesome pick that you managed to grab.

Thank you Ryan.

Surprising thing was there was so little advance warning, the instant the sirens came on, it was already on top of us...

...and they shut off while it was still on the ground. Maybe they are just looking at radar, but someone dropped the ball on that one.

Holy cow, Tom, that's a remarkable shot!

(trash kit lens) Still love it though.Nothing trashy about it -- that's an L-series lens and it's worth about $1200.
It's a great lens, and it's the best L-series lens to bundle with the 5D2 kit.

Wife was backing out of the driveway, I was saying goodbye, she commented how dark the sky was, and that there was rotation. She drove away, next the air raid sirens went off. I looked out the window to see trash and debris floating in the sky. I opened some windows and doors to equalize the pressure. The phone rings, it's her screaming, "GET TO THE BASEMENT, THE TORNADO'S RIGHT ON TOP OF THE HOUSE!"



I followed her advice, went to basement and got the camera and started snapping pictures from the street. I was getting beaned by hailstones so I went inside, put on a motorcycle helmet and took some more. Safety first...

http://troper10.com/1024_MG_2259.JPG

You gotta be kidding, Tom, that's Insane.
Beautiful photo

J

Holy cow, Tom, that's a remarkable shot!

Nothing trashy about it -- that's an L-series lens and it's worth about $1200.
It's a great lens, and it's the best L-series lens to bundle with the 5D2 kit.

Hey Chris,

Na it's not the "L." It's the left over kit lens that originally came with my Rebel XT. It nice and light, due the high quality plastics it's made of ;)

Actually I've always like it's bokeh, that's why I keep it around.

This weekend I rented a 85mm 1.2 L. WOW! Here's something at little test shot:

Endeavour on the pad (mild crop and tight crop) for STS-127.

Handheld w/IS, 105mm, f/8, 1/400, ISO 100, Standard profile, Auto WB.

Here's a small moth on the kitchen window at night.

Nikon 105/2.8 Micro AF (pre-G lens); fluorescent lighting; handheld; 1/60, f/3.5, 3200 ISO.

It took a number of shots to get this right. The position was awkward. Small movements would mess up the framing and move the focus plane, and I didn't have enough light to stop down further without adding motion blur or noise.

I love the eyes and beak.

Fun with long exposure and high ISO.

Tripod, 24mm, f/5.6, 8.0 sec., ISO 12800, Standard profile, Auto WB, Bulb Mode.

Polaris on the right, Cor Caroli on the left, Big & Little Dippers in between at about 9pm.

another cat picture ...

AV mode - shutter 1/125 - ISO 1250 - f/1.4

Here's a bunch I did of my Niece the other day. All using the 85mm 1.8 lens on the 5D2. Shutter speed was 100 and the aperture varied between 2.2 and 4.5 Picture style is faithful with colour balance on sunny.
Avey

Wow, great work there Avey.

Here's our dog with a lunar halo and Jupiter, from last night.

Tripod, 24mm, f/4, 5 sec., ISO 400, Standard profile, Auto WB.

International Space Station / Expedition 20 on the left
Space Shuttle Discovery / STS-128 on the right
Flying 200 miles above Central Texas at 17,500 miles per hour.

Tripod, 24mm, f/4, 1/4 sec., ISO 3200, Standard profile, Auto WB.

First image is cropped from the camera .JPG
Second image is converted from camera .RAW, changed to Landscape profile and Daylight WB, applied NR.

I like to play with scale and abstraction on the macro side of things but unfortunately am currently without a dedicated 1:1 lens. Having been instilled with the philosophy of always working with what you have I thought I'd test out my 24-70mm f2.8 L series lens set to its minimum focus distance (.38m) and maximum magnification (0.29x). So I cranked the lens out (actually its in, but that doesn't sound quite right) to 70mm to snap these. Both taken at 2.8, 1/500 and 1/400 respectively. I was going for sharp focus on the weird little tuft you see in the foreground. I got it in the first image but missed it in the second. On the plus side the second image has those beautiful blury reds in the background. Late afternoon shoot.

I have always used a fairly low-priced video/still camera from the NV-MX500 to the HDR-SR10e. Video was my main focus just recording the kids and travels really.

Since getting the 5D I am hooked on stills and video. Here are some high dynamic range shots using AE bracketing of +-1, I took on Sunday morning. I used the kit 28 - 105mm lens. Photomatrix to create the merge and some adjusted levels in Adobe PS.

Pipe Head Balgray Reservoir on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrmurray/4515718618/)
Sunrise over Belgray Reservoir 3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrmurray/4514994869/)
Sunrise over Belgray Reservoir 4 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrmurray/4515623748/)

This evening, it hailed as I was cooking dinner. When the meal was ready, I looked out the window to see the most magical light. My son has my kit, but I fortunately had my employer's case in the trunk of my car. I immediately abandoned my food, got the camera, and was greeted with this rainbow off the back of my deck.

Lens: Zeiss ZE 21mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/5
Shutter: 1/40
ISO: 100

You know, you could talk me into going back to doing stills full time without too much trouble at all.

Ditch the sound gear, the back breaking supports, the..........................

Why, oh why, am I shooting video?

Bugger, my head hurts.


CS

PS: Good stuff, all.