New Sigma lens and "Stacked Plates"

After painfully doing a lot of "homework" and speaking to some who have some great experience(thanks Dick M.) on various telephoto lenses for DSLRs including all of the "third party" glasses like Tamron, Sigma and Tokina, as well as most of the Nikons I have made my mind up and will soon be getting the Sigma APO 70-300mm for my D80.


Shooting mostly with the Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5 - 5.6 kit that came with my camera and I am very happy with it for the most part excluding with the wider end (18mm) in which it does get a little "dirty" but again, it does a great job for a kit.


Dick McGowan also shoots some with a Sigma and you can see some of his pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stackedplates/

He has taken some incredible pictures including some great stormscape shots like the one below of the Hill City "Mothership" also shot with a Sigma lens!


Copyright Dick McGowan (please contact him for copyright usage at: http://www.tornadolive.com/)


For the price and quality, (as you can see from above) Sigma seems to have great products that produce great results. This is why I am going to choose the Sigma brand in the future.
I plan on posting some new pics as soon as I can which include a few HDR shots.

SN And The Writings Of Mr. Shane Adams

For those of you who don't know or have not heard, it appears we have a severe issue with a few people doing really dumb stuff with the Spotter Network. This includes giving false reports of severe weather/tornadoes via the SN. Please see ST thread: (who is bobby cookie?)

Now I am a member of SN but have yet to really use it as I have been unable to get the GPS running and of course with the tours I did not have much time to really set it up this season.
However, I am familiar with it and familiar with the membership procedures required to gain access. Without trying to explain my thought process in depth regarding SN, I have to say, that I, personally like and think what Tyler A. has is a great product.
I would have never thought back 1991 in my early days of chasing we would be able to basically give reports via any Internet connection and have all of the functionality of such a product, but with any kind of the "latest/greatest" comes the nasty little issues we are dealing with.

On that note, If you have not had a chance to read or look at Shane Adams blog, I would encourage everyone to do so. Shane has a wonderful way with words and no doubt has a the writing ability that some authors would kill for. With his basic blue collar text, I have found myself hitting his blog just about everyday to see if there are any new posts or drama he might be discussing at the time. Not only do I find his blogs very interesting and informative, my wife has jumped on the ship and also checks his blog for the latest that may be going on in the weather world.
I personally do not know Shane but I respect him and his way with words. When Randy and I did our show 'Tornado Hunters" for Tru tv, Shane was one of the few that did not hammer us or our ability on Storm Track as so many did. For that he also has my respect.
Without seeming to blow sunshine up his ass, I think very highly of him....he seems to be one of the most PASSIONate (no pun intended) chasers I have come into contact with and as I said,
I would encourage all to check his blog out on a regular basis as you never know what you may get.

On to the weather.....it looks like we may see some action if models verify during the Sat-Sunday
time frame. Still a ways out so I am not going to start jumping up and down but will keep my eye on this possible system.
Deer season has started so I may not have a chance to keep up with things on the weather front. As some of you know, I have got the stands up and got my bow all tuned up so I hope to get lucky before long.

As Dick M. says: written poorly by me

Greensburg Supercell May 26 2008

Eric and I looked at morning runs and targeted SW Kansas for the day. Informed the tour and took a chance and drove to Pratt. After spending several hours sitting and whatching "others" drive East, then West then back East and then West again( I hate stupid people) We drove west and intercepted the non severe storm just south of Greensburg. After much waiting on 54 it finally went severe and then finally tornado warned. We got a nice wall cloud and a few funnels but after the rain wrapped for the 3rd time we decided to go east and let it go. Heard reports of a few brief tornadoes on the ground and was not surprised but we did not see any of them.
All in all not a bad day...good forecast and great stucture for a few minutes. Thanks to Big Daddy for helping us get the tour out of the core.
Will post pics if I have time later. Congrats to many who had a good week...Shane Adams for one, who we saw many times but did not have time to stop and chat with. Dick M. who had a "close call" in Norther Kansas we drove right by a little further South....great catch!!!!!! By the way Jay C. I am sorry I could not talk longer down by Marshal....just to much going on.

Greensburg

Since the first of May I have been asked from other chasers as well as quite a few production companies about my video and selling it again for the year anniversary. Until now I have not really responded to the request but after seeing more of Dick M video on his blog site I thought I might address the issue.
For those who want to see what it was really like in Grensburg, and I say "really like" because there have been many people that went into Greensburg the day after or a week later or longer and somehow they say "it was bad" There have even been a few chasers implying that they were in the city that night when they were up in Northern Kansas! I find myself sick when I think about all the ignorant people trying to capitalize off of someone else's tragedy.
For the ones who were really there...they know what it was like and certainly do not want to re-live any of it.
I have had many people ask me "what was it like?"......since I am no longer posting any of my video from Greensburg, I would encourage all interested people to go to Dick M site at:
http://www.stackedplates.blogspot.com/
Dick, Darrin and company were right there right after the tornado went through and were able to help out quite a few people. Eric Duncan was helping as well.
Although I hate to say it, I still deal with Greensburg day to day, it is still a struggle. For many of you who saw our show "Tornado Hunters" saw what I went through.
For those who want to see more, please check out Dicks site...he was right there just like me or anyone else.