From almost 2 years ago on June Tenth Twenty Fifteen.
I stood in the middle of a field out at Silver Springs State Park as storms were blowing up all around me, every direction. I don’t recall seeing lightning, at least not close by, but this is probably not the smartest place to be when this is happening all around you.
But it is addictive and next to impossible to leave while it’s all taking place.
I like this top photo for the dramatic differences from left to right.
I took 209 shots that day and finally added up that I set aside 60 shots to do something with. I’m finally getting around to doing that. I can probably go through the 209 shots again and find more, but it’s been nearly 2 years with hardly touching these as it is. I think I should stick with what I have so far.
It’s rare that you’re presented with such a diversity of sky all at one time. I hope I get to see something like this again someday.
As I play with the images, I’ll put them up here.
bob
29 Apr 2017by the time such skies get a chance to appear over the city, there is simply too much concrete, glass and steel in way. You’d have to damn near live up top on Sears Tower or John Hancock to have a chance to see them. And frankly, the heat of the city, and the way the wind gets broken up by city structures, as opposed to flat, farm and rural land, it tends to take some-to-a-lot of the dramatic steam out of many of them. I have been talking the back roads home from fishing as of late (the last couple of years) getting on the highways at the last moment. It has afforded me a chance to catch some of those skies you capture so regularly. I find myself doing 40-45 mph in 55 zones just to try to drag out time and the light show. I often pull off the road, flashers on, so those behind me, presumably with somewhere to go and some kind of life to live, aren’t held up by me, 2017’s version of Pa Kettle. I don’t have the Nikon with me – I’m too nervous to take it fishing with me to leave it in the car for hours while away – just a good point and shoot. But the best P&S can’t do what the big boys do. So, I have a decent shot in a small camera, and an exquisite but fleeting shot in my head. Yes, I admit it. I’m kinda’ done with the city. Would love to live in St. Charles, Batavia, Elgin or elsewhere along Rt. 31 in a bit of a house hugging the banks of the Fox with the possibility of such vistas laying just off to the west. One day.
Ken G
29 Apr 2017You do well with that point and shoot from what I can tell. Even in my neighborhood in Montgomery where nothing is over 3 stories tall, the vistas get killed quickly and it’s rare I’ll even bother taking any shots around the neighborhood.
Straight west of me, 7 miles, starts farm country. Some of these roads barely see a car at times and I get to idle along at about 15. I like the areas southwest of Montgomery, down around Yorkville and further downstream. Far fewer people. But I think you’d do well around Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and north of their a bit.
We talk of moving, but we’re looking at Hinckley and Dekalb. Dekalb is far cheaper and the empty land surrounding it seems to go on forever.