jeffniederstadt

This ain't Kansas

On April 15, 2016 a beautiful tornado formed near Eads, Colorado. We were lucky enough to witness the entire life cycle of this tornado. The only way this chase...
Read more

On April 15, 2016 a beautiful tornado formed near Eads, Colorado. We were lucky enough to witness the entire life cycle of this tornado. The only way this chase could have been any better was if we were able to get closer.
Read less

Canon EOS 70D

settings

Aperture f/6.3 ISO 200 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 24/1

upload_date

May, 2016

Views

15178

Likes

+3.9k

Awards

Action Award

Chatter Award

Zenith Award

Creative Winter Award

Curator's Selection

Legendary Award

2020 Choice Award

Top Shot Award

Honorable Mention in Image of the Year Photo Contest 2016

Contest Finalist in Image of the Year Photo Contest 2016

Member Selection Award

Runner Up in Celebrating Nature Photo Contest Vol 1

Contest Finalist in Celebrating Nature Photo Contest Vol 1

Contest Finalist in 5000 Dramatic Landscapes Photo Contest

Contest Finalist in The Battle Of Advanced Photo Contest

Featured

Peer Award

+874

Absolute Masterpiece

+557

Superb Composition

+337

Top Choice

+262

Magnificent Capture

+186

Outstanding Creativity

+99

All Star

+58

Superior Skill

+50

Genius

+17

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

+21

Happy

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Categories

Awesome capture!...:-)

Platinum

Beautifully captured!!! Excellent work.

Whoa! Amazing!!!

Wow, what a great shot! While you didn't win my photo challenge, if I could have picked a second, it would have been yours. Nice job, and keep up the great work!

This is amazing!!

beautiful!

Beautiful and Timing shot

Platinum

An amazing picture. On my bucket list to do storm chasing. Thanks for inflaming that for me. :-)

Platinum

Love your colors in this beautiful photo, lucky you!

Brilliant photography

Wow! Amazing capture! Congratulations!

Amazing capture! Would have loved to have been there. I chased a wall cloud in Minnesota a few days ago but it never developed more than golf ball size hail before it disappeared (for good and bad).

Awesome capture!!

Stunning capture.

PRO+

Very cool, Outstanding capture

Platinum

Thrilling

Wonderful capture

Congrats on nature contest being runner up;) Terrific capture ;)

Fantastic capture !! Congrats !

Superb artistry!

Platinum

Awesome capture.

Great Shot, Jeff. Keep up the good work! Congrats...

Fabulous image, excellent work!

...1A-100%-!!!

Wow, wow, an amazing capture!

Outstanding photo

Absolutely stunning photo!! I think I saw this tornado on YouTube from a few chasers. Thank you for this beautiful photo!!

Absolutely amazing!

Your picture deserved to be the image of the year compaare to the otherss so common. Congrats

Wow !!!!!!

Now this is a tornado picture

I love this picture! Consider entering it in my challenge! https:// viewbug.com/challenge/colors-in-nature-photo-challenge-by-elizwalker1214

When i saw this image i let rip with that f word and i think ive said it 4 times since. This is f...ing awesome.

Join the conversation. Add a comment or even better, a critique. Let's get better together!

I have been to close to one of these twice to think that these pretty

I'm just going to stare at this open-mouthed for a while

Wow - just wow!

Amazing image

Amazing photo!!

Such a fabulous image!!

Awesome image

Absolutely beautiful

I would be huddle in my bathroom! Not only is this a fantastic capture but shows how brace you are

Amazing shot! Great light and drama!

Wow. Nature is the ultimate artist.

If I had the funds, I would definitely have ordered a print to hang up on my wall. I love thunderstorms and especially tornadoes. My partner thinks I'm insane for wanting to be a storm chaser. However, I'm only 19 and wouldn't know where to even begin. Such an amazing capture.

Georgeous! Beautiful!

Platinum

Totally awesome photo!

PRO+

AWEsome.

PRO+

dangerously beautiful - well done

Superb

Superb shot

This is insane shot! Excellent work!

Wow!

PRO+

Great shot!

Join the conversation. Add a comment or even better, a critique. Let's get better together!

Absolutely the most stunning tornado photo I've ever seen. That amazing layered cloud skirt, and the overall radiance - the composition/contrast between flat motionless prairie and whirling sky - wow!

PRO

This capture is nuts! In a good way. This is scary and jaw dropping and beautiful! Tornadoes terrify me. This is amazing!

This photo is amazing

Awesome photo! I have a "Thunder and Lightning Oh My" challenge up right now if you are interested!

PRO+

Storm chasing is on my bucket list...because of breathtaking photo's like yours!! This is fantastic!!

Awesome shot! That scary green color is something that we here in Oklahoma have come to hate!

Wow what a brilliant shot!!!

Top shot

What an incredible photo!

So surreal!

Platinum

That is amazing. No words to really describe it.

That is an incredible shot

Platinum

Gorgeous picture

Premium

Fantastic

Prophetic

Wow, very impressive.

Platinum

Wow! What a great shot

Wow!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

PRO+

Simply amazing!!!

Stunning!

Pretty picture!!

Platinum

Wow what a great shot!

Nice shot! I'm following your work. I saw in the behind the lens section your looking to improve your editing skills. I'm editing half in photoshop and half in OnOne Software. The best and quickest way to improve your editing is to swallow your pride and let photographers whose work you admire to critique your work. Honest critique can be painful most people shy away from it. As for me this is the 1st time I logged into viewbug in months so if you chose to seek my advice it could be a while before getting a reply.

Amazing,,,, !!! Amazing

Ultimate

Incredible shot

I remember this day, amazing angle you got there! Second tornado I ever saw, first one I ever "chased!"

See all

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Behind The Lens

Location

Being a storm chaser, I never know when and where I will be shooting. Some days we can drive for hours and never take our cameras out and have to turn around and just head home. Some days the weather doesn't agree and any photos I do take can end up being bad. Then there are days like this one in the image where conditions are almost perfect. No rain, no hail and nothing blocking our view. This was taken near Eads, CO and the only thing that would have made it better in my opinion would be to be closer.

Time

This is one of my favorite images from this year. I remember waking up that morning and looking over the weather models and seeing 2 targets that day. One in eastern Colorado and one in Texas. It was a tough decision to make but decided to take a chance on the Colorado target. As we arrived in Eads, CO I remember feeling a very cold wind which I thought was going to be very bad for any tornado potential. It was pretty early in our chasing season and was our first chase of the year. As the storm approached we decided to go after it and have a better look. It was mid day around 2:30pm. As the funnel cloud dropped out of the sky I quickly stopped the car, grabbed my camera and tripod and took off running through a field towards the tornado. I couldn't run as far as I would have liked because I had been so excited that I forgot to turn off the car.

Lighting

The natural lighting provided wasn't the best but it was enough to shoot at a low ISO. Lighting is rarely great while under a storm and sometimes you don't have much time to get your shot. Many times there will be just enough time to jump out of the car, snap off a few shots and then get to a safe location. I had plenty of time with this storm but with the excitement and adrenaline flowing I tend to forget everything and just enjoy the moment and hope that I get a good shot.

Equipment

I used a Canon 70D and my go to lens while storm chasing is my Tamron 10-24mm lens. I hang my camera on the head rest in my car and my tripod is laying on the back seat. Not having much time I can quickly grab my camera and my tripod. Most of the time I shoot storms handheld and then later wish that I would have used my tripod.

Inspiration

I am inspired by every storm photographer and every storm image that I see. Storms just amaze me. I started out buying a camera only for storm chasing. I wanted to capture images like I had seen in magazines and online. I wanted to be able to share what I see with others that aren't able to go after nature's fury. I am actually very inspired by many photographers. I look up to many and strive to one day produce images as good as the ones that make me go awe.

Editing

I spent many hours in post processing on this one. Even though I have been doing this for a few years I still have so much to learn when it comes to post-processing. I had a certain idea in my head and through trial and error I did my best to bring forward my vision. Like the majority of my landscape work I process the sky and foreground separately with many layers and masking. I usually want my sky to look one way and the foreground to look another. With this one I wanted the image to be dark and moody. I wanted a sense of fear but also a sense of beauty. I did my best to bring that across and I hope others see that in my image.

In my camera bag

I don't have that much but I take everything i own with me. A Canon 70D body and attached to that is my Tamron 10-24mm lens. I have a Canon 35-80mm lens that I rarely use but got it dirt cheap. I recently purchased a Canon 55-250mm lens because my wife has one and I get jealous of her great close up shots. I have a couple cleaning cloths to wipe the rain from my lens and the typical things to clean my lenses. I also have my lightning trigger packed. Sometimes after dark the sky lights up with a beautiful display of lightning. One day I will capture that. Can't forget to have a spare SD card. Seeing a tornado and then realizing that you left you SD card at home is like a punch in the stomach. All of this is packed in a Lowepro camera backpack along with bug spray and a flashlight.

Feedback

My number one piece of advice would be to be safe. When it comes to severe weather you never know what could happen. Besides the danger of a tornado there is other dangers like hail, lightning and flooding. Always have an escape route. When it comes to the photography part my advice would be to be aware of your surroundings. Look around to see if there is anything that would make the scene better like a barn, a tree or anything of that matter or something to show scale of the storm. There wasn't anything around for this image and that is the case a lot of the time for me. Experiment with your camera and try different settings and angles. Most of all just have fun with your camera.

See more amazing photos, follow jeffniederstadt

jeffniederstadt

jeffniederstadt

This ain't Kansas

On April 15, 2016 a beautiful tornado formed near Eads, Colorado. We were lucky enough to witness the entire life cycle of this tornado. The only way this chase...
Read more

Views

Likes

Awards

Emotions

Top Ranks

Categories

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Discover more photos See all

Behind The Lens

Location

Time

Lighting

Equipment

Inspiration

Editing

In my camera bag

Feedback

See more amazing photos, follow jeffniederstadt

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

jeffniederstadt

This ain't Kansas

On April 15, 2016 a beautiful tornado formed near Eads, Colorado. We were lucky enough to witness the entire life cycle of this tornado. The only way this chase... Read more

Views

Likes

Awards

Emotions

Top Ranks

Categories

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

Same photographer See allBehind The Lens

Discover more photos See all

Behind The Lens

Location

Time

Lighting

Equipment

Inspiration

Editing

In my camera bag

Feedback

See more amazing photos, follow jeffniederstadt

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

On April 15, 2016 a beautiful tornado formed near Eads, Colorado. We were lucky enough to witness the entire life cycle of this tornado. The only way this chase...
Read more

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.