The northern territories of Tornado Alley were busy in 2008. Iowa, in particular, had an active year. After spending much of the afternoon chasing a tornado and supercell storm this opportunity arose as we pulled over to take some photos. A fire truck pulled up and the crew engaged us in conversation. Not uncommon in Tornado Alley this time of year. Bonafide stormchasers are the equivalent of a fifth emergency service. I could not resist getting the fire truck in the frame, with supercell in the background. American truck and vehicles enjoy so much character. Olympus E3, 12-60mm SWD - F5.6, 1/15s. Four images stitched for panorama.
They don't stop harvesting for anything over here. Does the farmer know what is alongside him? Of course he does! The colour combination of the the combine and his field of crop was a bonus here. We had just driven a mammoth 9 hours, managed to find this storm and this was a our first sighting. Marvellous. Olympus E3, 12-60mm SWD - F5.6, 1/50s
This wall cloud kept taking on a different form and shape almost every minute. They make great camera subjects because of this. Note the green skies underneath, signifying very large hail falling. I was quite happy snapping away at the storm on its own, but when the truck appeared racing through I was well chuffed. It really helps with a sense of scale. Olympus E3, 12-60mm SWD - F5.6, 1/40s
