So I spent the day at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in the small Amish farming community of Strasburg on Sunday 3-29-2009. The museum normally closes at 5:00 PM on a Sunday but they announced around 4:30 that they were “closing immediately !”, the rest of the announcement was a little muffled so I couldn’t understand why. When I exited through the lobby, I saw the ticket taker running into the museum’s gift shop yelling that they had to close and empty the building because there was a tornado warning !
I’ve lived through several tornadoes but never had the chance to photograph one. Just then a little voice went off in my head asking “what would a famous photojournalist like Joe McNally do in this situation ?” Yeah, so you can picture me out in the museum parking lot trying on different lenses to pick out the most appropriate one for the shots I wanted. Luckily, I had my Cokin Pro Z filter holder and filter set with me and my 10-20mm Sigma lens was already on the camera body since it was my primary lens for shooting in the museum. Next was to pick an appropriate spot. I drove up the road about half a mile until I found a strip mall with a parking lot. It afforded good views over the adjacent farmland and I could pretty much get 360 degree views of the forming storm. I shot up until the 1/2 inch hail started to fall and then I sat in the car waiting to see if anything else would develop. It never did become a tornado but it came pretty darn close. I got the shots I wanted and nobody got hurt so I guess there is a happy ending.
Shot with my D300 mounted on a good, sturdy Gitzo tripod. Captured as five bracketed frames using a Sigma 10-20mm lens with Cokin Pro Z filter holder and Cokin Pro Z neutral density filter (ND4) and a Cokin Pro Z Graduated Tobacco Filter (T2) to bring out the ominousness (is that even a word ?) of the clouds. Processed in Photomatix Pro to create an HDR from the five bracketed frames.
