Thursday, October 6, 2016

Nature at her very best


Storm- and weather-chaser Mike Olbinski has produced the latest in his long series of videos, this one focusing on the monsoon weather of the south-western USA.  It's spectacular!  He says of it:

My early scenes years ago had a lot of average clouds and distant rain that didn't have a lot of excitement or energy. But as the years go on, and I learn more and more about chasing storms here in Arizona...I've found myself in better spots to capture the stuff I really enjoy. Strong downbursts of rain, building clouds, lightning...and yes, dust storms.

The one thing I was hoping for in 2016 that the previous years have lacked: Haboobs. Dust storms. Rolling walls of dirt and sand engulfing the deserts and even Phoenix itself. And my wish came true in that regard. Even a very late season, September 27th haboob that I captured right at sunset with glorious colors.

Coming off the heels of filming Vorticity in the spring, with monster supercells and tornadoes, the monsoon is a totally different beast and you'd think it would be less exciting. I don't know. I find them both amazing and inspiring. Weather to me is weather. No matter how mind-blowing it was to witness the Wynnewood tornado this past spring, standing in front of a rolling wall of dust, or a distant lightning storm under the stars...it's all a blast to me and I never get tired of it.

So Monsoon III...the credits will say it, but it was around 36 days of filming, I shot over 85,000 frames and am not sure how much made it into the final cut. The song I used was "Revenge" and "Revenge: Epilogue" by Kerry Muzzey, and I took both of them and sliced and diced until I actually had a six-minute version to fit in with all the footage I captured. I love it.

There's more at the link.

I recommend watching the video in full-screen mode to get the best results.





Lovely!  Time-lapse shooting like that gives one a whole new perspective on nature.

Peter

3 comments:

  1. In Colorado you can see lightning in the distance with a clear sky and stars right above you.
    Don't expect the same with the skies of Ohio though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing... Just bloody amazing! No more needs be said.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Moved me to tears. I so miss the plains....

    ReplyDelete

ALL COMMENTS ARE MODERATED. THEY WILL APPEAR AFTER OWNER APPROVAL, WHICH MAY BE DELAYED.