Approaching Storm Photo

Photographer’s Note

I was out yesterday, taking my daughter to her flute lesson, when I saw a storm approaching. I drove off quickly and found the light to be very agreeable.

This is the heart of where I live: Cache Valley, Utah. It is an alpine valley surrounded by mountains, the Wellsville Mountains on the west and the Bear River Mountains on the east. Rich farmland lies between.

Most of our valley's open space is used for dairy production, and many class B dairy farms litter the valley. Class B dairies cannot use the milk for milk, but must use it for other things like cheese and yogurt. Indeed, there are three large cheese factories in our valley, all producing an excellent product sought worldwide.

In this photo, you can see these trees that have grown along the banks of a canal (or "ditch" as folks here call them). Mormon pioneers also pioneered irrigation techniques, and literally changed the face of the dry west with their systems of dams and canals. They site scripture and turn to Isaiah 35:1 in claiming to fulfill prophecy: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."

Indeed, roses do well here. With little rain, fungus diseases are almost nonexistent on roses!

nwoehnl, mortijo, Albrecht, avigur_11, hispic, zenitlady, singuanti, bantonbuju, ravish, PixelTerror, Galmeida, wilkinsonsg, capthaddock, robiuk, Jeppe, danyy, Georges, Amphitrite, Marlis, cherryripe has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

colinb (1536) 2005-04-28 13:41

Wow, the deep blue of the approaching storm is amazing. Great photo.

srabbe (1424) 2005-04-28 13:42

Wow, colours are absolutely fantastic!
This is beautiful, I like the light, the green and yellow contrasting with the dark sky, and the simplicity of the subject.

nwoehnl (120) 2005-04-28 13:47

Well, the light being "very agreeable" has to be the understatement of the day, David. It's incredible, and together with the thick layer of clouds a delightful atmosphere of impending doom seems to be conveyed. Effective composition with the low-positioned horizon, and great hues of color. Very good.

yzzabelle (515) 2005-04-28 13:51

This storm is more than approaching! It's there! Very good shot. I like the contrast between the dark skies and the other colors. Nice one, bravo!

mortijo (12416) 2005-04-28 13:52

Magnificent! The kightnis absolutelymagnificent. Well framed shot. Congratulations

naxius (16679) 2005-04-28 14:04

Stunning photo David!
This light and these very dark clouds!
Impressive.
I love your photograph!!
Bravo!!
Alexandre

kensimage (8543) 2005-04-28 14:07

Agreeable light, indeed! Very nicely composed, David, with the right balance between earth and sky.

Albrecht (11223) 2005-04-28 14:14

Hi David
Very impressive sky; the green grass beneeth is a great contrast. A very good compo.
Greetings Albrecht

Gdouble (5245) 2005-04-28 14:25

Absolutely fantastic. What a precision. Like the pthers already said colours are amazing.
Great picture
Guy

easybob (0) 2005-04-28 14:29

L'art d'etre au bon endroit au bon moment. Du beau travail à tous les points.

Hanssie (9133) 2005-04-28 15:14

Heavy weather making a wonderful picture, great !

Ina (2681) 2005-04-28 16:01

What a heavy weather here... Your colors are so very good and the the golden color on the trees are almost unreal...TFS...Ina...

dkeus31 (26387) 2005-04-28 16:46

Hi David,
Superb light and good centerd framing.

anesugur (17018) 2005-04-28 17:00

Superb picture. Congratulations.

sarju (5308) 2005-04-28 17:24

hey David
Just one word .... AWESOME .... Colors came out very well
thanks for sharing the photo and an informativ note
cheers
sarju

avigur_11 (21307) 2005-04-28 18:19

Wow, what an amazing light and electrifying skies. I like the composition of bands in different (and contrastic) colors. Beautiful one, David.

zenitlady (219) 2005-04-28 20:13

Hello David! A sky like that would scare me a lot!!! Gorgeous capture--that bottom cloud layer looks like waves crashing onto some celestial shore! Great dramatic contrast, the gold in the fields is spectacular. Well done!

singuanti (15240) 2005-04-28 22:18

Hi David. Quite the dramatic scene you captured, eh?? I don't think the contrast can get much better or stronger than that. I think I see a little noise in the sky but it hardly matters. I've heard that about several areas of Utah that the Mormons turned desert to green. I was thinking you normally might post this as a b/w and I must say the color version is much more powerful. Nice one David!

bantonbuju (48796) 2005-04-29 0:46

hi dave, this is unbeatable composition for that light and "ungry" sky:
just 1/5th of the frame left for the saturated green scenery while the majority of it - remains for the unbelivably dark sky!
great shot;
bw, jerzy

ravish (140) 2005-04-29 0:48

hi david,
great contrasting natural colours.very good composition with nice adjustment in colour and contrast.this is one of my favourites involving the greens.well done.
regards,
ravish.

john_c (24635) 2005-04-29 2:16

Very effective, David. A definite winner. Perfect lighting, opportune capture. The ambience is palpable. Cheers.

RandomCameraGuy (3063) 2005-04-29 4:21

It's the colours that do it for me David. Such a complementary mix. It does look like a hellava storms coming your way. Did it turn out as bad as it looked coming?

BTW, if there were a theme on photos with the same/similar titles I think this would win hands down with the most entries! I used it myself for one of my Indonesian shots :)

PixelTerror (86861) 2005-04-29 5:34

Hi David,
It was worth stopping, wow what a dark sky ! I like the trees under these menacing clouds are there is an interesting light on them, the whole view is very dramatic.
Have a nice week end,
Jean-Yves

jrj (34779) 2005-04-29 6:22

Really great David, asking me one of your best. Lucky you then, having the bad weather in combination with the stray sun. Simple, elegant, well seen! Still, just very good, fine balance of the details, good one. Flute lessons or not - bringing the camera probably the most important...

yekjohn (1886) 2005-04-29 9:04

Beautiful and dramatic landscape scenery. This menacing storm will have most photographers scurrying but glad you stayed and took this. Cheers, John.

baba_flies (8115) 2005-04-29 9:38

Simply spectacular ... and a bit scary !

Galmeida (12559) 2005-04-29 13:36

Hi David,
What a beautiful and simple scenery, so well captured and framed. Strong and impressive sky, Low horizont and the lovely green trees and lawn in the base approach. Excelent multi-tones captured here. It's really a great work in a approaching storm, and the result is wonderful for our eyes.

Very well done and composed!!!
Congratulations
Fernando

wilkinsonsg (8646) 2005-04-29 18:04

You have caught a very dramatic set of colours here - the air seems about to burst - very well seen and captured :)

maphoto (8076) 2005-04-29 23:31

This is very beautiful David, marvelous landscape, not always funny weather but simply beautiful on a photo, excellent contrast and very dramatic, well seen and done, thanks fore sharing.

capthaddock (28640) 2005-04-30 9:58

Hi David - the colour, geometry, sharpness everything here is fantastic, one of the best pictures I've seen on TE, very impressive rest of gallery as well.

robiuk (10763) 2005-04-30 11:04

David,
this shows what a passion for photography really is - not to run away on the sight of this sky but to stop the car, step out, take a deep breath and start enjoying the scenery (when everyone else would shut themselves in their houses).
Immensely dramatic BG you captured here and fantastically lit FG; kind of staging we get over here only in summer.
What I especially appreciate here are the trees against deep blue and a drop of innocent white clouds on the very top.
Divine!
Robi

cam (8880) 2005-04-30 16:10

Exceptionnal!Everything has been said.
Just beautiful.
Charles

Jeppe (18623) 2005-04-30 18:07

Truly magic light you captured here - I can reconize this sight from some rare events near where I lives. I seems to be a must for dairies around the world to make bigger and bigger units. There use to be a diary for each village (almost) but now theres perhaps 4 or 5 in Denmark.

Thanks David for sharing this and the note about farm life in Utah.

ChrisJ (70443) 2005-05-01 3:34

Hi David

Nothing much to add to the previous comments. I like the lighter toned part of the roll cloud top right. Great photo.

danyy (69499) 2005-05-07 1:34

Bonjour David,
Je viens d'effectuer une petite promenade dans ta galerie et je suis tombé sur cette superbe composition que j'ai de suite mise dans mes favorites.
Il y a un tel contraste entre ce ciel menaçant et cette campagne éclairée d'une si mystérieuse lumière.
Un grand moment, mais vite se mettre à l'abri.
Best regards.
Daniel.

Georges (11185) 2005-05-19 4:45

Brrrr quel temps ....

Bonsoir David comment allez vous?

L'image est tres bien composée et l'instant present a été bien figé.
Les teintes sont tout simplement incroyable :0
Bravo une bien belle prise

Joaquin (420) 2005-06-09 12:18

Hola David, sigues haciendo tan excelentes fotos como siempre. Esta foto particularmente es exquisita por el contraste de colores y luces. Maravillosa composición y buen trabajo. Gracias por traerme a este sitio tan bueno. Saludos desde Costa Rica, Joaquin

lukkul (510) 2005-06-17 13:17

Hello David,
I'm a new member but with a few of posts with some great delay. I saw your great work and this is my tribute to your wonderful and creative personality. Very good in colors, contrast and imaginative inspiration and momment.

Fantastic!
Luis

lucinka (9920) 2005-06-29 4:57

David, I love those dark colors on your photo. Great detail of the clouds and perfect composition. Storm is simply perfect time for photos. L.

MON (135) 2005-08-09 14:06

Excellent shot! I like a lot the colours and the composition of the photo. Congratulations!

alejandroguzman (4672) 2005-08-13 2:13 [Comment]

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Amphitrite (1592) 2005-08-29 14:25

Great shot!
Awesome green and blue with so nice composition. Trees and the yellow field are fantastic as transition.
Congratulations! Very impressive...
Pinar

jwright (260) 2005-08-30 21:29

I like the colors in this photo. I hope you ran for shelter after you took this picture. Well done.

Marlis (2274) 2005-09-11 5:29

most impressive shot. The black clouds look so end of the world....
The green of the grass and the delicate shapes of the trees are a wonderful contrast to the sky and clouds.
Thank you for sharing.

santhosh_ermal (122) 2005-09-23 19:51

This is one of my favourate creation of your david !..really mean it

no other words....

thanks

santhosh

ton (82) 2005-09-26 0:29

WOW!! Superb Shot David, perfect color. I guess the polarizer really helped a lot here. Great contrast. It's an eye catching photograph. It's just fell relaxing while looking at it. Well done!
regards,
ton

richtersl (3544) 2005-10-06 8:35

The light you captured is really eerie! Beautiful photo, Dave!

ccooper (836) 2005-10-29 17:27

David,
There is something so intense about the clouds here. This is my favorite part of a storm, waiting for it to arrive. Simple and wonderful!

MichaelTrezzi (3170) 2006-02-24 14:34

Great colors and POV. Well done, Cheers, Michael

rmatthews (941) 2006-06-20 2:23

Wow David,

I don't know why I never noticed this image of yours before. Very cool...very, very cool. I love the dynamics of this image. It could use some sharpening but I really like it. I'll post a workshop for you...

[workshop] [compare]

cherryripe (19187) 2007-05-06 13:46

Hi David
The contrasts are stunning with the strong green of the grass and dark grey/blue of the clouds. The trees are beautifull lit as well. It's great how the sky is 2 toned.
Regards
Nikki

corsicastorm (3224) 2007-05-18 8:56

Le contraste est puissant; les premier eclairés et colorés et les ciels menaçants c 'est toujours très bons

norman_isaure (1282) 2008-04-18 12:17

Bonsoir David
Tu as réussi la une superbe image ! Les couleurs éclatent à l'écran, tout à l'air si réel !
Tu as immortalisé un moment inoubliable, encore bravo ! On croit sentir l'odeur de l'herbe et de l'orange qui menace.
Amicalement.
Georgy