TCS.net - Michael's Blog

Storm Clouds at Sunset East of Kearney

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:04:04 -0500

Storm Clouds at Sunset East of Kearney
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, June 28, 2010, 2:04pm

Benjamin and Luke Kruciak went up to Columbus last Tuesday, only to find blue skies. Not much happened up there. Everything was the opposite direction down in Kansas. The storms hit Kearney by evening, so my sister Kristin and I met Benjamin and Luke east of Kearney to watch the storm.

This is one of the few photos worth taking up northwest

The photos below were all taken northeast of Kearney on Poole Road.

Just for fun. This is Luke's car.

My Buick, the traditional chase car up to this point, finally had the transmission fail. It's had troubles off and on for the last three years or so, but first gear seems to have finally gone out. I'm listing it on eBay this week if anyone wants to buy. ;)

Our friends in Holdrege had told us we could have their Ford Escort if we paid to get it fixed. Thankfully the car was fixed by the time mine died, so we had it for a chase vehicle. It has a manual transmission, so Benjamin thought it would be fun to let Kristin learn how to drive it while I was taking photos. First, Benjamin let Luke take it for a drive.

I think Luke is driving in this photo

I liked the background motion blur in this photo. :)

Benjamin's demonstrating to Kristin how to operate the clutch

At least we got a few good photos out of it. :)

Storms in Northeast Kansas

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:59:55 -0500

Storms in Northeast Kansas
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, June 21, 2010, 2:59pm

It looked like a decent chase day, and it would a "local" chase, according to Benjamin. We didn't plan to go much more than an hour or two from Kearney. Luke and Josiah didn't come this time, but our sister Kristin and Peter came along for the ride.

We headed south of Holdrege and watched storm clouds start popping up. Benjamin had his eye on a storm building to the east, so we turned onto highway 136 at Alma.

I believe it was south of Franklin that we hit our first storm.

We abandoned this storm for a better one that had developed further east. It had an obvious hook on it near Jewell, KS.

In an effort to get closer to the storm, we took some less favorable roads east. Thankfully it hadn't rained here yet.

There were groups of people stopped along the road watching the storm. Some people were parked in the middle of the road, forcing us to drive in the grass to get around them.

We caught up to the storm and stopped for a restroom break and took some photos of the nice wall cloud. Peter was being train for tripod duty, so he was in charge of setting up and taking down the tripod whenever we stopped. He got pretty fast at it by the time we were done.

We drove through Concordia as the storm closed in. TornadoVideo.net's Dominator was just ahead of us.

The Dominator

Driving through Concordia

The storm was getting exciting here. We were watching the rotation over our heads for any sign of tornado formation.

The core of the storm was nearing us, so we took off east before it hit. We didn't want our dad's vehicle to get hammered by the hail. (My vehicle is out of commission due to transmission failure).

Kristin and Benjamin survey the sky

There was a spin-up on the ground just a few yards in front of us. Benjamin was watching the cone form up above, but I was watching the ground circulation. I grabbed the camera and got out to get a photo, but it was gone. Didn't last much more than 10 seconds. The Dominator pulled up shortly after.

We came to a place were several power poles in a row were snapped off, and some of them were stuck back into the ground where they were broken off.

At this point we decided it was time to head home. We drove along the southern edge of the intense rain as we headed back to Concordia. The sunset was beautiful as it shown through the rain.

Concordia looked like a war zone. Branches and were down everywhere. We stopped at a gas station to get something to eat, but we had to wait a few minutes while the girl at the counter got the cash register running again. On the way out of town we had to re-route to get around downed powerlines. Just outside of town we saw a grain bin that had been blown over.

Water was across the highway in some places. We were pulling into Randall when suddenly we saw rushing water across the road. I couldn't stop before we had gone several yards into the new river. It wasn't very deep at that point, but as I inched forward it kept getting deeper. Benjamin and Peter got out and waded ahead to see how deep it would get. It came up to their knees in the middle, so we realized we shouldn't attempt it. It looked like a river just flowing from between the houses and across the road. I've never seen anything like it. A man in some kind of machine pulled up beside us and told us that even if we could make it through this spot, we wouldn't be able to make it past the next flooded area. He told us the best thing to do would be to go all the way back to the road north of Jamestown, twelve miles away. A man in a white pickup pulled up alongside the first man and he wondered if we could just go to a road three miles back. "I wouldn't send anyone on those roads in a car like this", the first man said.

We thanked him and headed back down the highway. We knew our car could do a gravel road just fine, so we checked the first road north that we came to. It was just a minimum maintenance road, so we kept going. At two miles from Randall we found a gravel road. I should have taken better note of the fact that the guy in the pickup was talking about a road three miles east, not two. Maybe that one would have been gravel all the way through.

But this road was great. We just had to go two miles north before we got back to a paved highway, and no need to go all the way back to Jamestown.

We were passing some farm buildings and a line of trees and the gravel abruptly turned to the color of dark chocolate. It took me a whole second to realize that it wasn't gravel. Hitting the brakes confirmed it. The brakes didn't do much besides make us slide at an angle into the ditch. The ditch wasn't more than a slight depression at the edge of the road, and my wheels stopped part way in the weeds at the edge of the wheat field. I put the car in reverse to see if the weeds under the tires might give me a little traction. Not a chance.

The next option was to get out and push. When I stepped out my shoes sank in the mud. Kristin sat in the driver's seat while Benjamin and I pushed. When Kristin pressed the gas, we were bathed with muddy water from head to toe, but the pushing was in vain.

We were stuck.

My reputation with my passengers was very poor at this point. I do not have the heart to repeat the things that were said to me at that time. I deserved it.

We had no choice but to walk the muddy road back to the farmhouse just a few yards up the road. Benjamin, Peter and I walked back up the road while Kristin waited in the car. To our dismay, there wasn't any house. Just a barn and a light illuminating the barnyard.

We were stuck in the mud out in the middle of northern Kansas in the middle of the night, far from help.

I like adventure. But I hate having adventure at other people's expense. The worst part about it was that it wasn't my car. I wasn't sure that all my companions were enjoying it much either.

We have some friends in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Kristin had a brilliant idea to call and ask them to drive the hour to come and rescue us. They seemed almost excited at the prospect of coming out to save us from the mud.

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

After the rain and hail had stopped, I got out and walked back up the road to take some lightning shots. Here are a few of them.

You can see the lightning reflected in the floods of water in the valley

I was very dissappointed that this lightning bold wasn't fully in the frame. :(

We were very happy when our friends showed up around midnight. They had made preparations in case we had to spend the night at their house and return later to extract our car. However, we decided to see if we could push it out with the extra hands.

It took us maybe five minutes to push the car back to the gravel road. It took a little effort to keep the car from sliding into the ditch as we went.

We are forever grateful.

We got home around 4:00am.

Next time I drive a gravel road on a stormy night I'm keeping my eyes peeled...

June 17, 2010 Freeborn County, Minnesota Tornados

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:35:10 -0500

June 17, 2010 Freeborn County, Minnesota Tornados
by Benjamin Tillotson
Friday, June 18, 2010, 10:35am

Almost didn't chase this day as I had a lot of other things going on. But after looking at data that morning I really thought this day was looking to good to pass up. I'm very glad I went as this ended up being an incredible day...

This is the first tornado that we saw. It didn't last long and the wall cloud quickly dissipated. At the same time the cell to the south began to organize...

...and quickly produced a small tornado.

This storm basically went tornado crazy for the next 45 minutes.

It was a bit dark for handheld shots but the lighting was really good.

Things are starting to get fun.

Tornado just missed Kiester, MN to the north. We are on the north side of town. I heard later that trees were falling on the road in town so they closed the road going through Kiester. It's a good thing we didn't get stuck south of town.

Crazy action right over the road. BTW these are mostly taken at 10mm so this thing was a lot larger than it looks.

Another wall cloud forms to the east.

Blurry shot but it tells the story. :P

Time to get close now since we have a good road.

It really beefed up right over the road.

This is still at 10mm so you have to understand how huge this thing was.

Wow!

That collar cloud had some crazy motion. I pretty much just drove up to it at this point. Saw debris flying in the air high above our heads.

Incredible! (I was using that word a lot at this point)

The area smelled real strong like dirt after the tornado passed.

Inflow winds were sustained at at least 60mph. I had a really hard time opening the door to get out. Then when I got out of the car it was too windy to get still shots. So these are all taken out the winshield.

We ran into a bunch of debris after this went through and the roads out of Albert Lea, MN were blocked off so we headed home after this.

Brickyard Park in Hastings, NE

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:18:20 -0500

Brickyard Park in Hastings, NE
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, June 14, 2010, 9:18am

I went to Hastings on Saturday for a wedding, and Micah and Josiah (brothers of the groom) took me to Brickyard Park. It's a beautiful park with hills and trees and large grassy spaces. We decided to take some photos of ourselves there. I'm not very experienced as a people photographer, so it was fun to make an attempt at being creative...

I wasn't standing in quite the right spot. It was hard because I had to push the shutter and run and get in place within 10 seconds. I desaturated greens and yellows in this photo.

Micah and Josiah look good in this photo. My pose is somewhat interesting. I just barely got to my place in time before the shutter went off. Micah and Josiah called it the "this is my tree" pose. :P

That was fun, guys! :) We'll have to do that again.

Scotts Bluff, Nebraska Tornadic Supercell

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:04:17 -0500

Scotts Bluff, Nebraska Tornadic Supercell
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, June 8, 2010, 4:04pm

We chased the warm front in eastern Wyoming/western Nebraska area on Monday.

Cells began early in the day moving off of the higher terrain in Wyoming. We targeted the Kimball, NE area and watched a couple small high based cells for a while before going north. It quickly became apperant though that the cap was too strong that far south and the only good stuff was further north toward Torrington, WY.

The storm at Torrington had some great structure!

We followed this storm untill it moved over some vast roadless areas in western Neb. After leaving that storm we waited for another storm to the west which was severe warned. This cell eventually developed some decent rotation and produced a short lived tornado east of Scotts Bluff. We did not see this torndao as we were getting buried by the RFD at the time further west. Once we emerged from the core we had fun watching clouds racing south over hwy 26 and wrapping into the wall cloud. It was too dark for pictures at that point though.

Also saw a lot of blowing dust out ahead of these cells.

Camping at Eldon Reiter's Farm

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:02:58 -0500

Camping at Eldon Reiter's Farm
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, June 7, 2010, 1:02pm

Every year we camp out at Mr. Reiter's farm. Usually we go earlier in the year when it's cooler and fewer bugs.

Mr. Reiter even mowed the grass for us

Andrew & Peter found sticks to practice their fencing skills

The dam at the south end of the cow pond

Peter & Patrick hunt frogs while the bull and his cows observe from the opposite shore

Luke & the bull eye each other

The cows decide to retreat

Luke & Benjamin return from chasing cows

Exploring the land

It was very hot out, so we rested in the shade for a while

Mr. Reiter's barn

Turkey burgers!

Heidi spent hours before hand getting the food ready for us. It was delicious. Thanks Heidi! :)

Josh looks like he's about to faint from hunger

We were hearing turkeys nearby, so Luke and I decided to track them down. Luke saw the turkeys at a distance, but I never saw them.

Luke surveying the landscape

When we got back to camp the others were taking group photos.

Even Rance made it for the group photo!

After the photos, we played a game of "Human Capture-the-Flag". The rules were a little confusing and not universally known, so we never really knew who won. I captured Patrick (the enemy "flag") and carried him to one side of the pond while Josh had capture Andrew and carried him back to his side of the pond. The debate was never settled as to who got there first.

We gathered together again to read a chapter from the Bible. We read Isaiah 40, a powerful description of the transcendence of God. It gave us something to think about as we went to bed and looked up at the stars.

My brother and I don't really like tents. We prefer to lay our sleeping bags on a tarp out in the open and watch the sky and feel the breeze on our faces. Our tarp is usually large enough to have enough extra to pull on top of us in case of rain. This time we had so many people that we didn't have any extra tarp, so we were hoping it wouldn't rain. Thankfully all the storms stayed north of us.

We lay there talking for a while about the stars, satellites and meteors we were seeing above us. We could also hear the frogs down at the pond. The frogs sounded different than any frogs I had heared before. They made a mournful wailing sound, as best I can describe it. It was gutteral, but not a croaking sound. They would have moments of silence and then start up again in chorus.

About 2:15 I woke up and decided to get up and get a drink of water. When I stood up I saw an amazing lightning bolt to the north, so I decided I should get out the camera. Patrick apparently hadn't slept at all, so he and Peter went with me. Here are a few of the shots:

This lightning bolt was so bright it washed out the photo beyond recovery. I wished I could have gotten one of these bolts with a lower ISO setting, but I missed my two chances.

It was a beautiful storm. I stayed up for an hour and a half taking photos.

Micah's waking up

Cottages!!! The best breakfast. :) Sausage and cottage cheese helps provide enough calories to get through the day.

Taking our morning walk

Ok...?

After our walk we cleaned up and headed out to the Platte for a swim. The river was deep.

Benjamin & Peter getting ready to wade through the mud

We didn't bring our swimming suits, so some of us had to swim in our jeans. It was great fun!

Looking forward to next time...

May 24, 2010 - Central Nebraska Squall Line

Tue, 25 May 2010 11:13:56 -0500

May 24, 2010 - Central Nebraska Squall Line
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 11:13am

Targeted North Platte yesterday. Cells were starting to form north of North Platte when we arrived. They didn't look very organized though and I decided to head south and catch the cells coming out of Kansas. Bad choice... The cells North of North Platte were soon tornado warned and our storms in Kansas were quickly dying. Storm motion was fast today so there was no chance of catching the stuff up north. We waited around North Platte for a while to see if anything could fire up in the area. Nothing did. It seemed like we were in a big hole and all the action was somwhere else around us. A cell fired at Broken Bow which was a good 40-50 miles east of where we were. That cell raced north becoming tornado warned as well. It was just too hard to intercept and keep up with any individual cell. So we went west to Arthur closer to the dryline and basically followed the squall line it produced back to Kearney.

The rain bands were one of the coolest things to watch here. We really needed a video camera to capture this. There was deffinitly some strong straight line winds in parts of the storm.

It quickly formed a whales mouth type of deal.

Micheal unknowingly lost his cell phone at this point in the tall grass across the road...

Group photo. I just had to insert this photo into Benjamin's blog post. :) -Michael

...and this is where we realized he had lost it. Amazingly we found it probab;y within half an hour. I wasn't sure if we would be able to catch up to the line but we did by the time we got to Stapleton.

The contrast is always cool with these things.

Over next to that power pole is where we found Micheals phone. It survived the torrntial downpour and boots up just fine.

Back ahead of the line in Stapleton.

Very cool.

The sunset colors were incredible. I even managed to get some lightning with it.

I included this last photo just to prove how bad I am getting at photography. I used auto focus to focus on the horizon/ininity. Forgot to check to make sure it was on infinit. It was actually on 1.4ft or something like that. They would have been really good shots otherwise. I even remember looking at them on the camera LCD and thinking that these are probably some of the best storm/night shots I have ever got.

May 21, 2010 - Eastern Wyoming Supercell

Sat, 22 May 2010 11:17:51 -0500

May 21, 2010 - Eastern Wyoming Supercell
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, May 22, 2010, 11:17am

Luke, Seth and I chased the supercell in eastern Wyoming yesterday. Probably got there to late for the best structure. Also missed the short lived tornado that was reported. The highlight of the day was probably sitting through the shower of golfballs it produced.

You can see that RFD cut back there. We drove into that core after this and had fun with the hail.

I'm thinking that I am becoming a worse photographer the more I do it. The lens was knocked off AF and was focused beyond infinit which means that nothing was in focus in these photos. :P Same problem as the last chase. You can see the hailstone though. They were mostly about golfball sized maybe a few bigger ones in there.

After this we had a fun time driving through some back roads back across the border into Nebraska.

Back in Nebraska on Hwy 29.

Drove north on 29 toward Harrison to see some cool structure before sunset.

We had a lot of fun on this chase...

May 10, 2010 Medford, Oklahoma Tornado

Tue, 11 May 2010 14:10:32 -0500

May 10, 2010 Medford, Oklahoma Tornado
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 2:10pm

Luke and I chased the Setup in Northern OK/Southern KS. We got to the Medford, OK storm just as it put down an incredible multi-vortex tornado. I didn't have the camera ready at that point so I missed some of the best action.

Very strong inflow at this point. This at 10mm and 1/50 sec. and was still blurry. Not sure if the tripod would have worked any better.

Anything zoomed in from 10mm was blurry. This is at 22mm. Also found out later that the focus was off a bit which added to the softness. They're ok I guess...

Some pretty intense action under that base.

RFD was closing in fast.

Tornado forms off to the north of Hwy 11.

I really wish these 22mm shots turned out sharper...

Storm went further off to the north and got rain wrapped. Not sure if it produced much more after this. It didn't look that great on radar so we dropped south to catch a storm crossing I35 south of Ponca City.

Drove through an intense core too see this.

We saw a very brief tube on this storm just before this shot. I'm not sure if it touched down or not.

Followed this weakening storm to Independence, KS.

This was deffinitly the best chase we've had this year. It was well worth the 1000 miles traveled. Hopefully there will be good setups like this closer to home though.

April 23, 2010 Storm Chase

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:56:43 -0500

April 23, 2010 Storm Chase
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, April 26, 2010, 1:56pm

Luke and I sat in under a very nice cumulus field all afternoon waiting for what wasn't going to happen till late in the day and way east of our target due to a stronger cap than forecasted.

NWS broadcasted a tornado watch for much of NE by about 1:00pm that afternoon. I have to admit the cumulus was beginning to look impressive in our area. That's as far as it got though. I think the only real supercells that organized in the whole state were east of that watch box. I was first drawn toward Omaha because that was the first convection I saw all day and just wanted something. Once close enough to that storm though I saw how unorganized everthing was there so we went south to some better looking storms west of Nebraska City. Sort of wasted time and gas going to the Omaha stuff. Oh well...

The cells between Nebraska City and Lincoln.

There was one point where it looked like the north cell could almost produce but it never got around to it. Some chasers reported a funnel and possible tornado on the south cell but we didn't see that. We probably just weren't looking.

This is a three image stitch showing both the north and south cells.

Mostly tried to keep up with the north cell as best as we could.

It was getting dark fast. Tried to stay close to the storm on gravel roads. Almost hit a deer in the process.

After driving through west Omaha (bad idea) and getting annoyed by not finding a good place to stop we drove west through the first line of storms then dropped south toward Wahoo and got some good shots of lightning on the backside of these storms.

Cool lightning always makes up for a not so great chase I guess.

Might be another chase day this Thursday.

Western Nebraska Shelf Cloud - 04-13-10

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:31:27 -0500

Western Nebraska Shelf Cloud - 04-13-10
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 11:31am

This chase was sort of a last minute decision. More than anything I just wanted some good landscape storm shots. Things turned out very good when a photogenic squall line/shelf cloud formed along the cold front. I left around noon targeting Ogallala. Got there around 3:30pm and watched stuff developing in NE CO. A couple cells formed ahead of the cold front. These cells looked to be the only chance for a tornado so I tried to chase one just west of Ogallala but storm motion was at least 50kts and with bad road options this was basically impossible. Plus the alltel card was not working on my computer so I had to go back into town to get updates. :(

This was the storm west of Ogallala. It went tornado warned as it passed further to the north. The only problem was I didn't learn about the warning until getting internet access back in town. This storm was moving fast enough I doubt I would have been able to keep up with it anyway.

After getting updates I decided to go north to Arthur. This is when I get my first view of the squall line. Contrast under this thing was incredible.

Everything about this scene was really cool.

A shot out the windshield as I was trying to get to arthur before the precip hit. That didn't quite happen so I drove at least half an hour in blinding rain and hail before getting out of it east of Arthur.

Back out of the precip east of Arthur.

The sandhills added a lot to the scene.

I like road shots like this.

Now the only thing I had to do was to keep on going east ahead of the line. I knew to start heading east when I started feeling the cold outflow. The line between hot and cold was crazy. One second your hot the next your freezing. The wind was strong as well. At one spot I think it was sustained at least 50mph with higher gusts. I had a tough time holding the tripod down to get some good shots.

It was getting dark enough for some lightning shots. Lightning was still distant though.

The day ended with a cool lightning display.

400 ISO sort of blew out these shots...

This was a really fun chase for me. I really like the sandhills and with a photogenic storm like that it really made up for that last chase.

April 5th, 2010 - Northwest Missouri Lightning

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:43:36 -0500

April 5th, 2010 - Northwest Missouri Lightning
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 12:43pm

This day didn't turn quite as I had hoped. I was hoping storms would be able to break the cap earlier in the evening... So it ended up being a mostly night chase without much in the way of good supercell structure. Good lightning display though.

Some towering cumulus late in the evening. First sign that something was actually going to happen. We had been waiting in Mound City, MO for a while.

The hills in MO were cool but not my favorite chase terrain.

MO does have cool roads...

We soon dropped these clouds for better stuff west.

The lightning show begins!

Not sure why this shot is so soft. I can't tell if it is just motion blur from the wind or if auto focus was off a bit. I've been noticing that auto focus on our 10-22mm seems to focus slightly beyond infinity.

Lightning began to get very cool about this point.

Around this time we got some internet connection and saw a couple of storms in norhteast KS that looked good on radar. We headed that direction but the storms quickly disorganized.

Sandhill Cranes Blind - March 26 - 27

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:34:45 -0500

Sandhill Cranes Blind - March 26 - 27
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, March 29, 2010, 1:34pm

This is a photo of the blind we used... I took this with my new Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 prime lens! It's sharp and I like it. This lens we will use mostly for video when we get the T2i.

The cranes didn't want to get close for a long time but there were a lot flying around. Sort of wish the lighting was better...

It was getting dark fast so the shutter speed had to come down which is obvious in these shots.

Cool motion blur effects.

It was hard to follow them with the tripod perfectly to get a good shot with a slow shutter speed.

It's crazy how part of the wingtips turned out so sharp when the rest is not.

Dragonflies...

This was the layout in front of the blind.

Coming downriver...I found out that cranes have souls that night. Pretty obvious in the next shot. :P

Last shot of the night.

First shot of the morning.

Asleep.

Awake.

Much warmer white balance after sunrise.

More cool motion blur effects.

A few shots with the 1.4x.

Sandhill Cranes & Snow Storm

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:25:16 -0500

Sandhill Cranes & Snow Storm
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, March 22, 2010, 9:25am

We had a bit of snow/blowing snow on Friday. It was very interesting to watch the cranes in these conditions.

It snowed heavily for a while before the wind started picking up. It was hard to see very far at times. Sometimes I could only hear the cranes in the field and not able see them.

Some of these photos were manual focused because the lens had a really hard time focusing on anything near the cranes. I don't remember if this was manual focused or not. If so I must be getting pretty good at it lol.

Visibility was getting somewhere below a quarter of a mile at this point. The ground was warm though so it didn't accumulate fast.

Sort of hunkered down. The wind is starting to pick up now.

A little ground blizzard starts to form in this field.

They were getting blown around quite a bit at this moment.

Probably wishing they were back in Mexico.

Didn't seem to be too happy with the weather.

The whole field went up at this point. Wind was really getting strong. Definitely time to find more shelter.

Almost got a real close one here. This is uncropped. It looked like it was attacking something in the field next to the road. Wish it would have stayed there longer.

March 17 - Sandhill Cranes

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:53:52 -0500

March 17 - Sandhill Cranes
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 4:53pm

Lots of cranes everywhere at the moment.

Most of my photos this morning were landscape type shots with lots of these cool trees in the background.

I really want to get some close shots this year. We might have to rent a blind to do that though. Those farmers next to the river have it good. It looked like every house had cranes pretty much sitting on their back porch.

I like this one. I wish it was sharper though. A lot of my photos I took this morning were a bit soft. I think it was from all those heat waves from the car. I had the heat on so whenever I opened the windows everything was all wiggly. Not good for photography. Oh well...

Playing with corn husks.

Sandhill Cranes

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:09:42 -0600

Sandhill Cranes
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, March 6, 2010, 1:09pm

The Cranes are here!

The fog was very cool this morning. Made for some good even lighting for most of the morning. Looks like the crane on the left was digging in the mud.

The warm moist air was creating quite a bit of steam near the ground where it was cold.

Cottonwoods are always cool.

Red Tailed Hawk.

You'll probably see some of these photos on POD in the next few days.

Wells Fargo Bank Hostage Situation

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:18:46 -0600

Wells Fargo Bank Hostage Situation
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 2:18pm

At 11:15 this morning a man carrying a shotgun entered the Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Kearney (only three blocks from our office). The man held four people hostage for a couple hours. The Kearney Hub website has some detailed onfo on the whole situation: "UPDATED 12 p.m. 02-10-2010: KEARNEY - Snipers are perched on the roofs in downtown Kearney as police rush to resolve a hostage situation at Wells Fargo Bank. As the Hub went to press, an armed man was using a shotgun to hold hostages inside the bank at 21 W. 21st St. The hostage situation began about 10:57 a.m., and around 11:15, some employees and customers at the bank were evacuated through an east door into the alley. About 30 to 40 people were evacuated, and police officers accompanied them to ensure the suspect was not among them. According to police radio exchanges, the hostage-taker was a male, about age 25, with a beard. He was wearing a tan trench coat. According to police radio communications, the man held the shotgun to a woman's head and demanded news cameras from NTV. He said he had been fired at the TV station and wanted publicity. Later, police communicated that the man had four hostages on the bank's second floor. As the Hub went to press, the Kearney Police Department was preparing to send in a negotiator. Police blocked streets around the bank and took up positions around the area. Snipers were on top of the nearby Bruce Furniture building."

The guy surrendured only five minutes before I got there. Kearney Hub says: UPDATED 1:30 p.m. 02-10-10: KEARNEY - The hostage crisis that began at 11:15 a.m. today ended almost two hours later when the hostage taker emerged without his shotgun from Wells Fargo Bank. Police immediately took the man into custody and then entered the bank to check for people who might have been hiding inside.

January 6, 2010 - Hoar Frost

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:16:13 -0600

January 6, 2010 - Hoar Frost
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, January 7, 2010, 6:16pm

More frost pictures! I don't know if you like snow and frost as much as I do but as far as new blog posts go this what you get this time of year. :)

I went to Cottonmill Park before the snow and wind started blowing most of the frost off the trees.

The frost was very thick in places. I'm guessing there was at least an inch of frost on the most exposed grass and trees.

A miniature forest of sand plumb trees.

Once the snow and wind started I went down to the platte river.

The Platte River is a very cool place in a snow storm.

85mm f/2.2 3200 sec.

Taking a break... At some point I realized how cold it was and started heading back to the car.

The camera bag had some snow on it when I got back.

Dec 8, 2009 Snow Storm & Frost

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:54:54 -0600

Dec 8, 2009 Snow Storm & Frost
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, December 14, 2009, 1:54pm

Tuesday, Dec. 8 was the big day for this event. Kearney ended up with a total of about 10 inches by the end of the day. But due to work and having to leave early the next morning I was not able to take as many photos as I would have liked. The trip across Iowa the next day was interesting as all of Iowa was under a blizzard warning all day making travel difficult. These are mostly from the morning of the 14th. The day before there had been quite a bit of freezing fog which made for some thick frost on the trees. I don't have a whole lot of time to write as I have a lot of work to do before Christmas so I'll just post lots of pictures and maybe I can write more later. Hope you enjoy. :)

The Platte River was almost completely frozen over.

These dips around the posts were interesting. It was all solid ice. I'm thinking that the water must have soaked into the snow as it drifted around the posts and froze that way.

Here are a few more from that evening.

Treehouse Decorating and Moon Halo

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:28:41 -0600

Treehouse Decorating and Moon Halo
by Michael & Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 11:28am

Some people have traditions for the day after Thanksgiving, like going shopping at 1:00am in the morning and decorating their houses and yards with Christmas lights. We have traditions too: decorating the treehouse while playing Christmas music and having monkey bread and eggnog.

Shopping costs money, even with the good deals. I usually skip that tradition since money seems to be in short supply these days. Sure, treehouse decoration costs money too, but not that much, especially when several strings of last year's icicle lights still work...after reattaching severed wires and replacing a few bulbs. The only shopping we did was to get a few more Christmas lights to be sure our treehouse would be well lit. Last year our treehouse was on the front page of the Kearney Hub, so we decided to do an especially good job with decorating this year. We expect a few more people to be driving by to see our handiwork.

Our treehouse is 27 feet off the ground. The peak of the roof is 39 feet in elevation. To get up to it you climb a 12 foot ladder to the first landing and take two flights of stairs up to the front porch. From there you can take the take the steps up to the balcony or enter the main level of the treehouse. The main level is maybe 80 square feet, large enough for a small table and several people (the more the merrier). There is a narrow ladder (somewhat flimsy) that takes you up to the loft which is approximately 4x6 feet. The height of the inside of the treehouse is 14 feet: 7 feet for the first level and somewhat less in the loft, but for the most part you can stand up straight without hitting your head on the ceiling.

This is a view of the front porch. On the left their are steps attached to the tree branch for ascending to the balcony, although you can't see them well in this photo.

While some of us were outside pounding in nails to hold up the strings of lights, Benjamin put up the greenery and lights on the inside. This is the main level.

Here you can see the ladder that leads up to the loft

As I mentioned before, we have a tradition of playing Christmas music from the treehouse while we decorate. We set up some large speakers and played music while we worked.

We wrapped string lights around the railings and put icicle lights pretty much everywhere else. This is the first time we ran this many lights all the way down the stairs. We even put lights on the ladder.

Here's what it looked like after a few hours of work:

I'm thinking it might look good to put another string of lights down the other side of the ladder as well. It looks fine from the street, but from this view it looks incomplete.

Group photo time! We did an 8 second exposure, so those that didn't hold still turned out to be a blur. (Micah!)

The treehouse decorating team! The guys decorated the treehouse, but the girls worked on other decorations and fixed monkey bread and eggnog for us (delicious!).

Left to right: John Tillotson, Kohei Kawai, Noah, Josiah, Michael Tillotson, Benjamin Tillotson & Micah

Here some more shots of the treehouse that Benjamin took:

Later that night a moon halo appeared in the sky, providing an amazing backdrop for the treehouse photos.

Well, we had as good a time as ever decorating this year. Thanks to all you guys who helped out! :)

Stanley Cemetery

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:56:32 -0600

Stanley Cemetery
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 11:56am

I'm still trying to find the best spot for some good super telephoto sunset shots. I didn't find anything quite like I was looking for but did end up in a decent spot east of Elm Creek.

Unharvested field of milo. Its been a little wet for the framers around here.

Some sort of wild flowers I think.

Cessna Road. This road is one of the main roads south of Amherst.

Some combines were stiring up the dust which made a cool effect at sunset.

Later that night we went northwest of town toward Amherst to get some moonlit landscapes. We ended up at this cool cemetery south of Amherst.

You can see a few ghosts in this picture. Yikes! :O

And here's part of Michael. :P

Stanley Cemetery

The Nebraska Badlands Part II

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:35:10 -0500

The Nebraska Badlands Part II
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 10:35am

The low for the night at Fort Robinson, only a few miles south of us, was 28 degrees. It's definitely the coldest campout I've ever had, but with a sweatshirt, hooded jacket, sleeping bag and blanket, I kept plenty warm. In spite of my efforts to make sure everyone would be comfortable during the night, poor Micah still got a little cold.

When we woke up in the morning, we had ice on our pillows. The dampness that was on our sleeping bags the evening before was now frozen. When we crawled out of our beds and tried to put on our shoes, we found that they were stiff from the frost.

Sunrise was coming quickly, so I grabbed the camera and tripod and ran pel-mel all over the place trying to get as many different angles and views as I could in the beautiful dawn light.

I repeatedly had to wipe off the ice that kept condensing and freezing on my lens.

The cloud patterns were beautiful in the morning light

Seth and DJ were perched on top of a couple of the nearby badland hills. Suddenly I heard DJ announce the sunrise with a yell. :) I looked to the east and saw the sun beginning to poke above the horizon.

A view looking east toward our campsite. Benjamin's there getting breakfast ready.

DJ is walking back to camp

Benjamin had breakfast almost ready when I returned to camp. Same traditional breakfast, this time with some cinnamon rolls.

The sunlight hadn't thawed our beds yet, so I got a photo of the frost on Seth's pillow.

Seth's pillow

Delicious

Josiah enjoys his sausage and cottage cheese

Cooking the second course of sausage

We had difficulty cooking the bacon enough to make it crispy

Don't laugh. We were only trying to figure out ways to cook cinnamon rolls without burning them. :P I don't think we succeeded.

After breakfast we still had time for a short hike to what we called the "baby badlands". :)

These badland formations are much smaller than the large ones we climbed the day before. DJ is demonstrating one of the better ways to navigate these narrow passages.

Seth is trying to find a way to descend gracefully

Josiah walks along one of the easier passageways

Water break

It's time to head back to our campsite to pack up if we're going to get home at the appointed time.

We rarely return the way we come. What's the best way down from here??

The riverbed is still icy

I believe it took us over an hour to pack everything back in the vehicle. We finally rolled out of Toadstool Park and were heading back to Kearney on Highway 2.

We stopped at a gas station for a rest break and a very late lunch.

The sidewalk was a convenient spot to spread out our sandwich ingredients

Josiah ponders the meaning of life while DJ takes catches up on sleep

By the time we got back to Kearney, the ice was all melted and our sleeping bags and blankets were wet. We spread them all out on our front yard to let them dry.

A nicely decorated front yard. Josh is making sure the pretty weeds by our mailbox don't dry up.

I am gratefull to all the guys for a great time on this trip! Perhaps again next year, as has already been proposed. :) I'm sure even greater adventures await us...

The Nebraska Badlands

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:24:56 -0500

The Nebraska Badlands
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 11:24am

Sleeping in the open air on a cold night at Fort Robinson can be fun, provided you have enough blankets and a cap on your head. I slept comfortably, but when everyone got up in the morning I found out that some of the team hadn't been as comfortable.

There were also reports of strange sounds in the night. Some creature had been near our campsite and made an peculiar high-to-low pitch screeching sound. Benjamin didn't think it was a bird. It ran away when they tried to approach it. As of now we have no idea what it was.

I think it had gotten down to the mid 30s during the night. We got a fire going as soon as we got up.

Some of the boys are still in bed. :)

Before sunrise, all of us (except Josh, who needed more sleep) loaded into the van and went east a little way to greet the sunrise. There was a moment when the horizon was pink just before the sun came up, and that was all. The sky was too overcast to get any really good photos.

Back at camp we fixed breakfast and replenished the water supply for our next destination.

Our traditional camping breakfast: cottage cheese & sausage, scrambled eggs, & bacon. Perhaps not a balanced meal, but we survived. :)

You can see the Fort Robinson graveyard in this shot

Micah is staying warm

Josiah & Josh refill our water containers

Seth cooks his bacon on a stick. It's much faster than the frying pan.

After packing the van, we stopped at the shower house for showers and then crammed ourselves in for the drive to Toadstool Park.

Stocking up on water and salt and pepper shakers at the Crawford grocery store

Cows just southeast of Toadstool Park

Everyone else waits in the van while I take cow pictures

We arrived at the park and packed a lunch and water bottles before we set out on our trek through the badlands.

Toadstool Park!

It was a little cool when we started, but it wasn't long before we shed our jackets.

Group photo! I got as high as I could before the camera timer went off

Navigating the badlands can be quite interesting. Nothing is very sturdy, and once you start sliding you may not be able to stop.

Yes, there are people in this picture.

Descending the ridge

Micah stands above a chasm

Micah jumps the chasm

There were small streams of water in the valleys. It had rained not too long before because there was some mud in the shady areas.

Josh found a piece of quartz

A cave!

Climbing the last steep spot to the grassy plateau was very challenging. You might make it most of the way up and then lose your footing and slide all the way to the bottom again.

Lunch break

Everyone's ready for a rest

Group photo! This time I made it all the way to where everyone else was before the shutter went off

Dark clouds started rolling in from the north and the wind was strong and cold

Micah and Seth wait for the others to catch up

DJ found an animal skull

At this point we decided to start heading back. We didn't take a direct route though.

DJ walks across the grassy plain

Some unique formations

See those cactuses? I put my hand on one and had my hand loaded with cactus spines. I pulled out as many as I could, but some of them were so small they broke off when I tried to pull them out.

I'm still trying to pull out cactus spines. :P

Cactus heights

Josh attempting to squeeze into the gap

Descending to the winding river

Walking in the river bed

DJ jumping the badlands

Group photo! :)

After the long hike we were tired. Time for an afternoon nap.

After naps we went out to explore the area to the north before supper. We ended up staying out until after sunset and having a late meal.

As usual, getting myself in the photo was a challenge

This wall looked like a badlands fortress

The shadows are getting longer...

The badlands river

There were sun rays coming from behind the badlands after the sun had set

We were quite hungry when we got back to camp for dinner. Benjamin cooked hamburgers and we had potato salad to go with them. We used our gas grill to cook the hamburgers, but we wanted to use the charcoal grill to roast marshmallows for s'mores. I poured the rest of the lighter fluid on the charcoal, and then it wouldn't start. There must have been condensation in the lighter fluid container which kept it from igniting. After trying to start it with paper plates and sage brush, we finally gave up and a few of us roasted our marshmallows over the gas grill.

I tried to make sure that everyone had enough blankets and clothing to keep warm for the night. Our sleeping bags were wet with dew before we even went to bed. That night it was going to get very cold...

Fort Robinson

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:33:37 -0500

Fort Robinson
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, October 19, 2009, 10:33pm

A year ago we took a trip to Fort Robinson, and we decided to take another excursion out to that part of the country.

The day before our departure, Benjamin was working hard to get everything ready to go. We planned to camp out under the stars, so we packed LOTS of sleeping bags and blankets. Some very special friends let us borrow their van for the trip, so all seven of us could squeeze into one vehicle.

The alarm went off at 5:00am. Some members of our team wanted to leave at 3 or 4 in the morning, but I figured we should all be well rested for the trip. :) Anyway, we headed out to pick up the rest of our team and were on the road by a little after 6:00.

We stopped once or twice for photos, which wasn't nearly enough to capture the beauty of the sandhills in the morning light.

The whole team. From left to right: Seth Brauning, Benjamin Tillotson, Micah, DJ, Josiah, Josh, & Michael Tillotson (myself)

DJ was sitting in the passenger seat, so he got to take photos as we flew past the scenery. He took the next three photos.

The sandhills. Good photo DJ! :)

We arrived at Fort Robinson State Park around noon, and paid for the park sticker and a camping spot in our traditional spot near the graveyard.

Breaking out the lunch

After lunch we drove out to the buttes. There were horses and longhorns in the fields, but no bison that we could see.

Micah & Josiah enjoy the view

We tried to get a group photo with all of us in the tree, but I couldn't climb fast enough to beat the 10 second timer. :P

Climbing dirt cliffs is a challenge. Thankfully we all made it back down in one piece.

Group photo! :)

Longhorns

The horses were very curious about the camera Benjamin was holding

We started to head back to camp to get supper ready, but we thought we should get our picture taken with the horses.

Group photo! :)

We also have a tradition of forgetting to bring a can opener on our camping trips.

The Cream of Chicken is now opened and ready to be dumped into the noodle pot...once the water boils

Getting the fire started is a team effort

Josiah watching over the noodles

The sun was getting low in the sky, and the noodles weren't in any hurry to get cooked. So I needed to get back to the buttes to get some sunset photos before it was too late. Josiah went with me to keep me company.

It was somewhat cloudy, but the sunlight managed to poke through shortly before the sun disappeared behind the hills.

We finished off the day with a visit to Staab's Drive-in for some ice cream. Perhaps it isn't very smart to eat ice cream before a cold night sleeping under the stars, but we enjoyed ourselves nontheless.

Thus concludes day one of our journey. A cold night awaits us with more adventures to come in the morning...

October 10, 2009 - Snowstorm

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:19:56 -0500

October 10, 2009 - Snowstorm
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, October 12, 2009, 9:19pm

Much of the northern plains recieved early snowfall this year with some areas like North Platte breaking some records for the month of October with over 13". I wasn't expecting anything big but was suprised to wake up on Saturday to several inches on the ground and still snowing. I think we ended up with about 3 -4 inches.

I went west of town to some hills to see what I could find.

Everything had a thin coating of ice. I think things were warm enough at first to melt the snow but froze later on.

I'm sure a lot of farmers weren't happy with how things ended up. It looked like most corn had not been harvested yet.

Its always hard captureing snow flakes in the air but I found the best way was to use the 85mm at f/1.8 and a high shutter speed. The large aperature helps to Isolate the flakes. f/1.8 1/800 sec. ISO 100

This is at the north channel of the Platte. There was still a lot of green stuff around.

Remnants of the burned bridge.

I have never seen poisen ivy in snow before. Usually its mostly gone by the time we start getting snow. Anyway, I'm probably going to get it now that I got so close to it :P. Thats what I call staring death in the face!

This is jumping ahead a couple days to Monday morning at the south channel of the Platte river. It had snowed agian and I was hoping for some more good snow landscapes. I was also looking for some good fall color to go with it, something we don't always get aound here.

A few deer crossing the trail.

This is about as good of "fall color" as I could find at the river. :P The photo's a little shaky perhaps but thats as good as I could do hand held in the low light. I just thought the snow on the leaves looked cool.

Because of the cold temperatures on saturday some trees just seemed to dump all there leaves at once.

Finally some real fall color! I found this maple tree at cottonmill park with a little snow on the leaves that hadn't melted yet.

There was more than one maple tree in the park. They really stand out against the seeming lack of color in most of the other trees around.

Got to meet this alien from another planet. :P Seriously, though, there heads look unnatural.

10/01/09 Sunset and Full Moon

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:55:32 -0500

10/01/09 Sunset and Full Moon
by Benjamin Tillotson
Friday, October 2, 2009, 11:55am

I took a short trip west of town yesterday trying to find a good location for some landscape shots. First off I headed to the hills south of Gothenberg but was a little frustrated by the road option (or lack of them). :P Most of the roads kept to the valleys so it was hard to find a high point where I could get a good view of the horizen.

Ran into a road block here. :) It kept on getting in the way whenever I tried to pass.

After an unsuccessful try in the hills south of Gothenberg I headed to the sandhills north of Brady. I needed a good view of the horizon for sunset and was having a hard time finding a good spot. I thought it would be cool to get a windmill silhouette right at sunset, but I didn't end up getting that either. :P

Its kind of lonely out in those sandhills. Not many trees out there and the ones you see are usually dead.

I actually ended up in some corn fields for sunset and my incredible windmill idea ended up being the top of a silo. It wasn't hard finding windmills but getting in the right spot for a silhouette seemed almost impossible.

Not sure what these trucks were hauling, it looked like corn.

I used this thing on top of this silo as a silhouette.

I noticed the full moon and stopped at Sandy Channel south of the Elm Creek interchange. The low fast moving clouds made for an incredible landscape. These last shots seemed to make the trip worth it. :)

I thought it would be kind of cool to have the car in the photo, but the only problem was the lights. I wanted the car lights on in the shot, but was having some exposure problems. If I left the lights on for the whole exposure they would be way to bright. So I had to lock the shutter open run to the car and turn on the lights for only a few seconds and then run back to unlock the shutter. I'm in this photo you just can't see me.

Looks like a little bit of lens flare on the moon in these shots.

It was a little windy so thats why the trees look the way they do.

A couple of I-80 shots before I head home for the night.

Low Fog Sunrise on the Platte River

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:20 -0500

Low Fog Sunrise on the Platte River
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 1:45pm

Some very cool low fog on the river this morning as temps dipped into the mid 30s for the first time this year producing our first frost and a good contrast between the water and air temperature.

It was still quite dark at this point. 85mm at f/1.8 for 30 sec. ISO 100.

85mm f/14 for 5 sec.

Some neat color with this sunrise.

Looking west. The fog looked quite thick there in places.

There were a lot of deer in the area this morning but I was having a hard time getting good shots of them because of the limited light.

400mm shot west. Even though I was using a tripod for this photo I still got some camera shake. Its difficult to get long exposures with the 400mm as the slightest wind causes the lens to move and the slightest motion is a big deal with a super telephoto.

400mm shot east with a Great Blue Heron.

Noticed a buck with a good sized rack down the trail. Wish I could have gotten closer. 100% crops.

Had a good opportunity here for some interesting photos but it was still dark enough I couldn't freeze motion. Oh well. :P

My batteries died at this point which wasn't a good thing as I began seeing deer right and left. Also found out that if I take out the batteries and switch them around I can take a couple more photos before they go completely dead. This last photo was definitely worth the effort.

The Platte - Overcast Skies & Blackbirds

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:10:48 -0500

The Platte - Overcast Skies & Blackbirds
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 5:10pm

This morning I woke up at 5:00, an hour before my alarm went off. I couldn't fall asleep again, so I got up and gathered camera supplies and breakfast and headed out to the north channel of the Platte.

When I got there it was still quite dark, so instead of going through the tall weeds to the bridge wreckage, I walked east through the woods to a place further downstream. A couple times I tried to approach the river, but I kept running into tall weeds that I didn't want to navigate in the dark with only a cell phone for a flashlight. At that point it began to lightly sprinkle and I hoped it wouldn't turn into a regular rain. Then I found a spot where the grass was short and I could get right up to the shore.

Suddenly I heard a noise from across the river. At first I thought I saw a deer running along the opposite shore, but then I realized that the creature was flying, not running. It was a large bird, likely a Great Blue Heron. A few seconds later I heard a sound like boulders being tossed into the river a few yards away. I recognized the noise as a beaver sounding a warning by slapping its tail against the water. Apparently it had seen me, but I stayed low, hoping it would stay around and be there when it got light enough to take photos.

It finally got light enough for a decent shutter speed, so I moved forward and looked up and down the river for any sign of life. Nothing. I decided to keep walking east and take some photos of the trees and vegitation.

This is the path that I am taking along the river--through fallen trees. The Platte is just to the right.

Then I saw a dark cloud suddenly forming on the horizon.

A cloud of blackbirds. I believe they were starlings.

The above photo was a smaller cloud than I saw originally. The moved fast in my direction and a bunch of them gathered in a tree across the river from me.

There were thousands of them flying right overhead

A few more starlings fly overhead

I like the grass here.

This is a burned tree trunk left from the fire that burned this area last spring

Cactus. Going barefoot near the Platte can be hazardous. I've had the prickly pear cactus even penetrate my shoes. Ouch.

Another grass photo

The next three photos are attempts to get this thistle framed just right. :) Which is YOUR favorite?

Thistle #1

Thistle #2

Thistle #3

Early Morning at the Platte River

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:57:21 -0500

Early Morning at the Platte River
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 10:57am

I haven't gone down to the Platte early in the morning for many months. I've had so many projects going on that it's been hard to take the time. And now that I have a shop downtown, I have to arrange for my brother to open up at 8:00 in my absence. Anyway, I finally decided to get up early and head out with my camera. My sister Vanessa also went along and kept me company.

The grass by the river was very tall dripping with dew, so we got a little wet. I couldn't see down the river from the shore, so I took off my boots and socks and waded out to a sandbar.

This is looking southwest of the burned-out bridge southeast of Kearney

It was somewhat foggy, which I had hoped for. It was a light fog, but had a good effect on the photos.

You can see the remains of the bridge that burned down earlier this year

Looking northwest Click here to order a print of this photo.

Now using the 400mm lens. This is where I saw deer standing in the river before (read this post), but I didn't see any today. Click here to order a print of this photo.

Sunrise

The sun peeked through the clouds for a few moments

A wide-angle shot of the river Click here to order a print of this photo.

I didn't see much wildlife today besides a few birds. It seems that the deer prefer to cross the river in shallower areas, so maybe this area is still a little deep for them. I don't know. I'll keep trying for the perfect shot. :) Maybe next week...

Camera & Flashlights & Other Night Photography

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:48:17 -0500

Camera & Flashlights & Other Night Photography
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, September 7, 2009, 10:48pm

Playing around with lights and a camera with a long exposure can be entertaining. Here's a few flashlight-effects photos we took recently, along with some other scenic nighttime shots.

Benjamin stands in the barnyard surrounded by a mysterious swirling light

To take the above photo, we waited until it was dark. Then we locked the camera shutter open for thirty seconds while I ran around Benjamin with the flashlight always pointing at the camera. Then I stood behind the camera and shone the light on Benjamin for a few seconds. The result is that you can see the light, but I, the flashlight bearer, remain invisible.

A similar technique was used below, except we used the flash at the beginning of the exposure to illuminate the scene and then did the lightning effects.

Josh emanating an extreme electrical charge

Imaginary people take on form with flashlight tricks like these.

Josh makes a new friend

Josh gives imaginary child a ride on his shoulders. Is he heavy, Josh?

Micah shares his electrical power with his sister

The following photo was created by illuminating part of the scene at a time. We only shone the flashlight on the spot where Micah was and then turned off the light while he moved to a new spot. This creates several images of the same person in the photo while minimizing ghost effects if you control the light well enough.

Micah shares pedal carts and a wagon with himself

Benjamin enjoys himself around a campfire

The following photos are just some scenes around a campfire at night. The horse was very curious about our campfire. We couldn't keep him away from it.

DJ is getting the fire ready to cook some bacon.

DJ cooked us some delicious bacon. We shared some with Buddy, their cat.

Nice juicy bacon cooked on a piece of slate. Delicious.

July 24, 2009 Storm & Lightning

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:57:06 -0500

July 24, 2009 Storm & Lightning
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, July 25, 2009, 10:57am

We saw a few severe storms in the area last night, so we went east of town to try for some good storm/sunset shots.

At this point we took a timelapse of the storm as the sun sets. Video will be added later.

24mm f/2.8 ISO100 20sec

Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:26:12 -0500

Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks
by Michael Tillotson
Friday, July 24, 2009, 1:26pm

The Grand Tetons

Jackson Lake. This is where we stopped for lunch.

While we ate this Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was working on a tree nearby

Horses were crossing the river near the south entrance to Yellowstone

As we drove through Yellowstone we were delayed by road construction and a motorcycle accident. Thankfully the biker was fine, but they took him away in an ambulance to be sure.

Motorcycle accident

Our first destination was Old Faithful. It erupts every ninety minutes, give or take ten. We arrived about half an hour before the eruption.

Old Faithful

It's just beginning

Most of the time it was hard to see the fountain because of all the steam.

It's over

Our next stop was Biscuit Basin, so named because of the biscuit shaped formations next to Sapphire Pool which have since been destroyed by its violent eruptions in past years.

This geyser boiled constantly

The colors around the geysers and springs are from mineral deposits and bacteria.

A stream flows from Sapphire Pool

After the 1959 earthquake, Sapphire Pool would erupt violently every two hours, blasting water 150 feet into the air. After a few years it calmed down considerably, but still boils violently once in a while.

Sapphire Pool - You can feel the extreme heat coming off this pool when you're standing next to it

Rusty Geyser - It erupts every two or three minutes for about thirty seconds

We stopped at Fountain Paint Pots next. In the parking lot we saw a Yellowstone tour bus.

Yellowstone tour bus

The trees die where the ground is covered by the mineral deposits

Silex Spring - If you stand and watch this pool for a few minutes you will see huge bubbles coming from the bottom that never make it to the top...like a huge pot beginning to boil

Fountain Paint Pot - One of the mudpots in the area

At the fumaroles you can hear the roaring sound of gasses rushing from the vent in the ground at high speed. Next to it a vent was submerged in the mud and was continually throwing it into the air.

The fumaroles

Clepsydra Geyser erupts continually for the most part. We got wet from the spray, but it was quite cool by the time it reached us.

Clepsydra Geyser

The Lower Yellowstone Falls are magnificent. We wished we would have had time to take the trails that go closer.

Lower Yellowstone Falls - You can see people to the right of the falls.

Yellowstone River below the falls

On the way out of the Park we saw a lot of bison.

Bison

This photo reminds me of the Windows XP 'Bliss' desktop wallpaper, only much better.

We got stuck behind a long line of vehicles moving very slowly. After a while we were able to look ahead and see what was holding up traffic.

Bison leading traffic through Yellowstone

It didn't seem to care about what was going on around him. Once in a while a car was able to get around him, but he just kept walking down the middle of the road.

Mr. and Mrs. Bison

One of the bikers in front of us revved his engine a few times which made the bison run, but they still didn't get off the road.

It was fun while it lasted. Here are some of the views on the east side of the park.

Three pairs of Pelicans

Yellowstone Lake

We could see the effects of massive forest fires

A female moose crossed the road in front of us

We found a vacant campsite at the third campground outside of Yellowstone. Benjamin got another star trail photo.

Star trails

Multnomah Falls

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:59:53 -0500

Multnomah Falls
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 1:59pm

This is a place you must stop at if you visit Oregon. These are the most beautiful falls I have been to, with the old bridge completing the scene.

Benjamin and me with our three sisters

The gift shop

The Oregon Coast

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:38:03 -0500

The Oregon Coast
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 1:38pm

Last Saturday we traveled along the Pacific coast, from Oswald West State Park down to Lincoln City. We should have traveled south of Lincoln City a few more miles to get the best sunset photos, but we didn't know better at the time.

You can see the seagulls flying around the rock

The following four photos were taken at Oswald West State Park.

Starfish and sea anemone

There were some caves along the shore, probably carved out by the pounding of the waves

The path to Oswald Beach looked as though you were walking through a tropical forest

We arrived at Lincoln City a little while before sunset.

There are rocks scattered on the shore, polished by the waves

I was trying to get the sunlight shining through the wave. It was fun holding the camera right above the water and then snap the picture and pull the camera out of the way at the last instant.

Sunlight filtering through the waves

Mount Saint Helens

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:16:31 -0500

Mount Saint Helens
by Michael Tillotson
Saturday, July 18, 2009, 4:16pm

We traveled up to Washington to see Mount Saint Helens on Friday. It was an great hike, in spite of the fact that we didn't take enough water and got dehydrated.

Smoke plumes coming from the crater

A group of Elk could be seen through binoculars at the foot of the mountain

Of course we had to have our photo taken with the mountain

There were thousands of these little flowers covering areas of the landscape

This little bird was crouching down in the grass to hide from us. We saw spotted sandpipers by a stream nearby, but we were too slow with the 400mm lens to get a photo

There were at least two waterfalls descending from the crater. We wished we could have gotten close to them, but hikers are required to stay on the paths.

Another photo of my brother and me with the crater behind us

Spirit Lake

My sister is holding a large piece of pumice. It is extremely light weight.

The canyon below Loowit Glacier

A dry riverbed

Fallen trees from the eruption cover the hills to the north

A departing shot of the mounting in evening light

Sawtooth Mountains & Redfish Lake

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:05:28 -0500

Sawtooth Mountains & Redfish Lake
by Michael Tillotson
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 5:05pm

We arrived at Redfish Lake below the Sawtooth Range on Wednesday afternoon. They are some of the most picturesque mountains I have ever seen. Benjamin and I had planned to climb them while we were there, but we arrived to late in the day to do that. They look like a whole lot of fun to climb.

We went for a swim in the lake, and the water was so clear. Even in the deep places you could see the bottom clearly. The water almost tasted sweet.

After our swim we took a break for dinner and waited for the sun to get lower on the horizon. I took some 10mm photos of Benjamin roasting marshmellows.

Benjamin roasting marshmellows at our campsite

Benjamin took the photos in the evening while I sat nearby working on our "Craters of the Moon" blog post.

That night Benjamin and I went to bed at 10:00pm and got up again at 11:00. We took our sleeping bags down to the edge of the lake and set up our camera to automatically take 30 second exposures until the memory card would fill up or the battery would die. We put the photos together into a video. Here is the result:

The moon rose an hour or so after we started, so you can see the mountains illuminated by the moonlight

A final photo at sunrise before our departure

Craters of the Moon

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:58:33 -0500

Craters of the Moon
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 9:58pm

The second stop on our trip was Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. The landscape certainly does make you feel like you're on a another planet. There are 618 square miles of volcanic rock.

The following photo is one we took a while after sunset. While the sun is up you can't see any clouds, but after sunset you can see interesting bands of white on the horizon. This is the result of gases in the atmosphere from the volcano eruption in Russia. You can read about it here.

Volcanic gases can be seen after sunset

Benjamin and I stayed up till 1:00am taking star photos from the top of one of the tallest lava mounds.

The Milky Way

The following photo was a one hour exposure starting a little before 11:00pm. We had the camera set to 200 ISO and f2.8.

A one hour exposure

The next morning I got up before sunrise (after five hours of sleep) and took more photos of the landscape.

Of course we had to feed the chipmonk that showed up at our campsite

The lava tubes are pretty interesting to explore.

Beauty Cave

Some water and ice were at the far end of the cave

Immediately after the cave tour, we departed for the Sawtooth mountains, the most beautiful mountains I've seen in person. Photos will be posted soon...

Climbing in Eldorado Canyon

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:01:00 -0500

Climbing in Eldorado Canyon
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 2:01pm

We did some rock climbing in Eldorado Canyon with friends from Denver, Colorado.

Benjamin doing a dyno move, i.e. jumping for the next hand hold

Kearney, NE Fireworks Display - 07/3/09

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:55:35 -0500

Kearney, NE Fireworks Display - 07/3/09
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 9:55am

The city display was excellent this year. We had a good view from the east with the display reflecting off the water in the sandpit.

The low cloud base made an interesting effect when some of the higher shells actually entered the clouds.

Some of the brighter shells really illuminated the cloud base above them.

The Country Club display is tonight(July 4th). We will probably go to it. Not sure if it will be better than the city display but They have done a great job in years past.

Bassett, Nebraska Shelf Cloud

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:11:03 -0500

Bassett, Nebraska Shelf Cloud
by Michael Tillotson
Saturday, June 27, 2009, 8:11pm

Yesterday morning my brother saw that there was a good setup for some strong storms in northern Nebraska. The area around Bassett, NE looked promising with good low-level shear. We headed out around 1:30 and took highway 44 to 183. The lack of Alltel broadband coverage between Amherst and Taylor was quickly apparent to us, so we didn't have radar or status updates for quite a while. According to the Alltel coverage map, all that area should have had internet, and the white area north of Taylor should had been the dead area. The opposite was true. I will have to talk to Alltel about this...

We arrived in Bassett around 4:00, and since storms had not begun in the area, waited around for quite a while to see if something would happen. Benjamin kept watching the radar, hoping something would pop in the area. Some locals stopped and asked us what kind of weather we were expecting. A guy who works as an EMT at the Bassett hospital talked with us for a while and gave us a map of the county roads in the area. He warned us not to go down some of them if we didn't want to get stuck. We were assured that they'd be there for us if we got hurt on our chase. We got a photo of him (third from the left) and the other guys who stopped by to chat. They suggested we grab a beer before we went after the storm, but we declined.

Basset, Nebraska locals - sorry guys, I don't remember your names.

A linear storm system came through, ruining our hopes of a seeing a tornado. At least we got good photos of the shelf cloud coming in.

Shelf cloud near Ainsworth, NE

Since my window had busted out on our last storm chase, we tried to keep the opposite side of the car on the windy side to keep the rain out. It worked most of the time. Some incredible lightning bolts struck not far from us when I didn't have my camera going, but we got a few good lighting photos.

The TCS team watches lightning light up the sky and landscape east of Bassett, NE

06/24/09 Kearney, NE Shelf Cloud & Lightning

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:15:39 -0500

06/24/09 Kearney, NE Shelf Cloud & Lightning
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 9:15pm

We noticed a severe storm heading for town so we got our camera and went a little ways north of town where we saw a nice shelf cloud. The storm was moving fast so with a few bad road decisions we managed to miss some good shots of the front of the shelf, but the underside of the shelf provided some nice contrast.

The setting sun gives us some good lighting and a rainbow.

Later that night we noticed lightning from the storms coming out of South Dakota.

Stapleton, NE Supercell

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:38:57 -0500

Stapleton, NE Supercell
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 10:38am

Chased the tornado warned storm south of Thedford. We never saw a tornado but did see a lot of blowing dust.

The cell quickly goes tornado warned.

Hwy 83 north of Stapleton. A couple spotters said that there had been a tornado not long before we got here.

RFD quickly overtakes us with 60+ mph winds.

Looked like the storm was trying to develop a wall cloud. Things were begining to rotate quite well. I was really hoping that it would produce right here with the rainbow.

Looking up as we are being blasted by the RFD.

Lots of blowing dust.

We go east on hwy 92 to Arnold where we took hwy 40 south. As we are heading south the wierdest thing happened, we heard this loud "bang" and our back left window shattered. At first we thought it was hail or something but we were a long ways from any precip and a long ways from the storm for that matter. Right now we are thinking it was lightning but we are sill not sure.

A couple lightning shots before we head home.

We combined the lighting photos we took into a video to show the cloud movement.

More video will be added soon (if we can get our software to work right).

Grand Island, Aurora, NE Tornado - June 17, 2009

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:24:39 -0500

Grand Island, Aurora, NE Tornado - June 17, 2009
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, June 18, 2009, 1:24pm

This day looked like a good chance of tornadoes over a large portion of Nebraska so we took off at noon with a target of Hebron, NE. The day didn't turn out exactly as expected as the only good storms looked to be back at Kearney. We head back toward Kearney and get on the storm at Wood River which quickly produced a couple brief tornadoes.

The first of the two brief tornadoes.

The storm had some good structure before it produces a second time.

Second tornado.

More structure shots as the storm moves closer.

We stopped and took a few lightning shots before the storm began to strengthen again.

The storm forms a new wall cloud as it nears Grand Island.

Some strong strait line winds as we enter Grand Island.

A nice RFD cut develops around the wall cloud.

We go east on Hwy 34 as the third and largest tornado forms.

Ground circulation begins about a quarter mile away.

Tornado moves south of the hwy. Michael is using the 10-22mm lens so the tornado was much closer than it appears.

At 10mm

Feeling the strong inflow winds as the tornado got closer was a little intimidating at times.

The tornado begins to move closer to the hwy and damages the buildings to the north of the hwy.

The tornado nears Aurora and we are a little concerned that it might do some damage to the town but it weakens as it enters town.

A last shot of lightning illuminating the updraft as we head back.

May 12, 2009 Storm Chase

Wed, 13 May 2009 13:54:20 -0500

May 12, 2009 Storm Chase
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 1:54pm

Went chasing in western Nebraska yesterday where we saw one high based cell and followed it for about 30 minutes before it fell apart east of Ogallala. We could have caught the cell that produced near Mullen but we were having trouble connecting to the internet so we didn't know what was going on.

After the storm died we tried to get some lightning shots so at least we could have something to show for the trip. Some of these turned out really nice!

A couple pictures of me with the lightning.

Michael tried to get some lightning while we were driving. Handheld for 15 seconds using flash.