Textbook Imagery!

[Xebadir]

So I am rather excited, and thought I'd post this up here. During the recent European Conference on Severe Storms I made a presentation on my PhD work with a couple of image montages of severe storms. After the presentation I was approached by one of the doyens of storm photography and one of the original storm chasers (Prof. Howie 'CB' Bluestein) and asked to contribute a photo of a Southern Hemisphere supercell for him to use in a new graduate textbook he is writing in the field. For an equivalent sort of feeling, try thinking of having a famous tog come up and ask to use your work . So naturally I was excited, but which image, which image (as you can imagine, I have one hell of an archive). I ended up sending him a list of my favourite storm images (specifically the rotating kind) from Australia and let him decide. He chose the one I expected him to:



This particular storm near Redesdale, Victoria lasted some 5 hours and attempted to produce a tornado several times (the large funnel in the centre of this image being its strongest attempt, and it may have suceeded in inaccessible territory), it also produced significant wind damage, and hail to cricket ball size.

So yeah. Really proud that one of my images was considered good enough to become a textbook example!

In other amusing news...an ABC documentary will soon be filming with me involved .

[MattNQ]

Congratulations are in order then
So did your storm photography start your study in the field, or did your study lead into your photography?
Or is that a chicken & egg question

[rellik666]

Congrats! That is great news....well deserved and well done!

[Xebadir]

Haha Matt,
Thats a tricky one to answer. At age 5 I saw my first hailstorm (Sydney 1991), Age 7 saw another and was utterly fascinated about the motion within the clouds, the colours and trying to measure the hailstones while they fell (and resisting my mothers attempts to pull me inside)...could explain the process of convection even back then (have a bit of paper framed with my explanation of convection, instability and advection after reading dads pilot's textbook). I was always fascinated to watch storms at any chance i got. Photography started for me when I got given a camera shortly thereafter (we went to North America), and gradually developed, though not taking weather images. Eventually I found out I could study meteorology at uni (though I would say the Supercells of December 2003 in melbourne including golfball hail at home got me reinvigourated), and started chasing storms in late 2004 as soon as I got my licence with my trusty film SLR. Study continued, and I chased the storms when I could, but it wasn't until on top of Mount Cooper in Bundoora while observing a storm that I ran into a guy named Brad (in 08) that the chasing really took off, as we started chasing together, thus dramatically reducing costs for a student (not to mention saving every penny to buy a DSLR). I got a PhD project in severe thunderstorm research (which improved my chase forecasting and understanding massively), the chasing became more and more frequent until pretty much anything within a 500 kilometre radius was considered fair game, a few trips to the states and visiting the storm experts there not to mention seeing a large number of tornadoes and well...the rest is history. Turns out that when I got my DSLR I actually had a bit of a knack for photography, far moreso than most would expect for someone who isn't really very arty but is more science minded (though maybe the physics of light appreciation helps). So can you answer your question now? Its sort of like developing the wheel and axle, but it wasn't until the two were combined that it really started flying along. Either way its been fun, and looks like leading to an awesome career in research.

[MattNQ]

Thanks Xebadir. Sounds like you have found a great career path that intersects with your hobby.
I love the line "anything within 500km radius was considered fair game" That could be a 12 hr round trip to catch a storm!? That's committment!

[Xebadir]

Heh it gets worse. We recently did a 2500 km return trip to get storms near Nyngan and Parkes NSW. We sort of have annexed most of inland NSW as chasing territory as noone else has been using it. The desire to see storms doesn't diminish either...the more I see the worse it gets. Part of why I want to move to the states .

[William]

Well done and Congrats on your great work

[Cage]

Great shot of a very nasty looking cell.

So your photographic journey and your career are entwined. I envy you making a living doing something you love.

Good luck with both journeys.

[Ionica]

Congratulations. Well deserved.

[Duane Pipe]

Congrats and well done

[bricat]

Well done. Seems like fun all day and night. Oh to be young again All the best in your career cheers

[Roo]

Congrats a nice honour to have being placed into a graduate textbook you must be pretty chuffed and Xebadir, holy paragraphs batman your text is difficult to read when compressed into one massive paragraph O_0

[Mark L]

..., holy paragraphs batman your text is difficult to read when compressed into one massive paragraph O_0

Maybe that's why John was asked for photos.
Well done Xebadir, and good luck to you for seemingly finding a future in something you enjoy.

[Roosta]

Nice indeed, May the god of wind and storms (That most of us don't really like) shine (If that's the right word) down upon you.

[Xebadir]

Hahaha Mark, nice call. I'm only a small fish in the thunderstorm world still producing papers....textbooks are an old farts game :P.

And when people tell me that they hope I have nice weather on a holiday I get very distressed. Far better to tell me I hope you have horrid weather . I do love my giant hail too....got some stuff to 7cms the other day.

[geoffsta]

Congrats Xebadir. No better feeling like being recognized for the hard work and preparation we put into creating a great image.