Storm Cloud Evolution

Dramatic Landscape and Weather photography. This is one of those images when timing and luck was everything. A portrait of a water spout , or water funnel risin...
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Dramatic Landscape and Weather photography. This is one of those images when timing and luck was everything. A portrait of a water spout , or water funnel rising from the sea beyond the hill and being sucked up and swallowed into the violent swirling storm cloud that had suddenly appeared in the distance on what had been a beautiful sunny day. Happening during the golden hour and a few weeks after a period of drought when wild fires had even scorched the earth of the farmland on my island in rural North Wales , UK , the raging cloud gained an even more violent and ominous hue from the what would have been a rich orange evening sunset. I was at some distance from the cloud when this phenomena happened and just lucky to have come out for my walk with my 70-300mm Nikkor lens and a filter attached in preparation for taking sunset vistas. I will say I paid heartily for the chance of viewing this spectacle as the storm cloud was moving very fast and within a few minutes it had swelled across the sky before bursting into heavy thunder and lightning right behind me which left me cradling my camera underneath my jacket to protect it from the deluge of rain I was swept up in whilst trying to move as quickly as possible along the country lanes to the only spot of shelter I could get to in the doorway of a derelict church a mile away. Yes, if I were braver I should have stood my ground and got some dramatic shots of the lightning bolts that were hitting the ground just feet away from my heels , but I am no stormchaser ; rather I was the one being chased!
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