Hello Yellow Happy | Oklahoma Photographer

Sitting here listening to Jason Aldean (for all of you who knew me 'before country', don't fall off your seat!) I've listened to country for years and I could give my husband credit, but really it was when I met a young girl who was all of 12 years old, about the same age of my youngest son.

Now this girl is grown up, married and has quite a bit of pasture behind and ahead of her to tread. Katrina Elam gets most of the credit for converting me to credit. Her enthusiasm for music is fantastic.

Then again, I'd be a bad daughter/sister if I didn't mention my mother and sister. When I was little, country was big in our house, but I didn't listen to it much. It was my mom's thing and she knew many of the artists back then and I don't mean just on the radio. That's a story for another time. As for Katrina, last I heard she was working on a movie, Pure Country Gift....haven't heard anything about it since last November. I'm sure it will be wonderful. go Google it for the 411.

Back to my morning though. I'm checking my tweets, facebook and such and discover Reed Timmer's update on weather for southwest Oklahoma..severe for tomorrow..whoohoo, why though on a Monday when I'll be stuck at work?! I love to go photograph the landscape and skies --storm chaser...ha.

Of course, being that I'm barely caffeinated I'm just looking at flickr textures and decided to play with some of my old photos that were neglected. Figured 'Hello Yellow Happy' would be a good one to start this Sunday and since it's gray outside it should perk up the day.

Storm clouds 'I love the red'

I shot several today of the outflow that was building north of the city today, caused from the massive storm, south of us. It was intense to watch but so far hasn't done anything in our direct area. Except drive my sinuses into OT making me so miserable. Even Walgreen's version of Claritin is not working on it.
My eyes are itchy and watery, my throat is scratchy, just no fun. So, I don't feel like working on the images and am only posting one, my favorite. My husband likes the red as do I. It makes me think of that sailor's proverb, 'red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in morn', storm warning..' so I went and Googled and came up with this link: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/weather-sailor.html
But of course, the red in my photo is on the ground, not in the sky, but it was the sky that is my main focus. And while shooting, I discovered that my sensors/lenses need serious cleaning!
I really wanted to capture these clouds about 30 minutes earlier, but was dealing with an errand that took priority.
But back to the photo and storm. Had the cold and warm drafts merged as anticipated, it would have really cut loose. Wait, they are still cautioning us on this, large hail and winds could still happen out of this system. And I shot the photo about four hours ago. I hope you like the photo. I'll put more up on my flickr page and most will be sooc.

Storms!

I have an obsession with storms! When I was little, I was scared to death of them. See, in California, we learned about earthquakes, but a tornado was unheard of. So, moving to Oklahoma, hearing a tornado siren sound and not knowing what a tornado was (I was only 10 at the time!) I guess I thought it was the end of the world. It was many, many years before I got past that fear! LOL
It wasn't until after I really got into photography and was living in Colorado before I realized, hey, this whole storm thing could be FUN! Yes, I know, demented, huh? But I have some super wall cloud images on display in my home and while to Oklahomans they look scary, shooting the images was extremely safe. Sitting out on the plains of Colorado, you can see for miles and miles. The storms were a good distance but the photos look like the storm was right on top of me. I think by the time we took cover, it might have been half a mile away.
In Oklahoma though, the storm can be right on top of you before you know it. Like today! There I was sitting in Duncan in front of the Stage store at Elk Plaza, deep in conversation on my cell, when all of a sudden it got really dark and there it was. I'm sure I shouted obscenities when I looked up at the sky. I was semi-prepared. I had taken my camera and gear with me this morning, but when I could have jumped out and got a great shot, it started raining hard and so I didn't risk getting my camera soaked.
I headed back to the newspaper and while there talking with a co-worker, we hear over the scanner that a funnel had possibly touched down at Halliburton Stadium (Duncan High's football field). I don't think much happened though other than just a toss of some field equipment.
But, I was kind of bummed to not have gotten any shots so far this year. And for it supposedly to be one of the high risk days, it wasn't much and was short lived. My adrenalin barely moved!
So, if you've read this much, and are still clamoring for a storm shot. The link is in the title of this entry and will take you to my old proofing gallery and some 2005 images I have up. I'll try to be more diligent in the future!
Also, here's a link to a photo I really like that I shot in Oklahoma http://tphotos.smugmug.com/gallery/508938#34889330-L-LB
If you have any great storm shots from this week, send them my way. I'd be happy to post them!