2010 DVD - Hostile Winds

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHdZubuRCCg

$25 DVD
$30 Blu-ray

http://www.extremeinstability.com/hostilewinds.htm

Probably too much info on there for it. In short, it's full of some pretty special and rare events:

First, extreme plains rime ice, which is then topped by extreme ice. It has to be exceptionally rare to get 1-2 or more inches of rime ice in the central plains and then before anything causes it to fall off....you stick 1.5 inches of freezing rain on the stuff. Makes for some messed up tree accumulations. Just blows ones mind a bit to get them on one another.

May 10 Wakita...nothing overly rare or anything with that but cool regardless. I was ne of it then and just north of its track.

May 22 Bowdle SD most intense experience of my chase life so far. It's rare to get a beast deal like that and have a nice set of paved zig zag options where it lets you easily intercept it repeatedly. Pretty much zero time where it wasn't able to be on video. In path as it first forms then damn near in it when it crosses west of Bowdle, which was amazing being near/under that collar cloud as it forms. Thank you again mother nature. Then I screwed up north of Bowlde but still got a great show up there anyway. Hard to feel too bad after the 2 intercept locations and views before that. Then the show after those.

June 12 had to get the KS dog on there.

June 16 Dupree SD. On that storm from its very first plume stage. What a rare treat this thing was. In around 2 hours time I'm not sure I moved more than 2 miles west of Dupree to 2 miles east of Dupree. As the tornado factory got underway. It gives Bowdle day some stiff competition for my favorite of the year..which is messed up. Both this one and Bowdle are each about 30 minutes of the DVD. I only just recently noticed on the video that longer lived main biggy was moving west most of the time. Starting as small cone, quickly to this humongous bowl with extremely fast moving large multiple vorticies, to wedge with cool vapor action, to crazy barrel deal with wild motions and a new tornado next to it and a helical vortice coming down by it, to long elephant trunk, to very tall evenly skinny tube, to long roping out process. Moments after that new anticyclonic one forms about where that one died as a new wedge forms west of that at the same time. To the 3 cone deal merging into one larger one. To another cone. Amazing event.

July 23 Vivian SD record setting supercell from birth basically, through a 2 hour period of being a supercell. From what I can tell it won't be easy to find another video of it at Vivian and around then, when it was most beasty.

Small clip of stills to round it out.

http://www.extremeinstability.com/hostilewinds.htm

 

[Wes Carter]

Wow Mike, I watched half of the preview and popped the Paypal button. It looks like you got some freaking amazing footage. I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

 

[Stephen Locke]

Dang, I'm going to go broke buying videos from all you guys this year.

I was going to release one myself but with so many others shooting really great footage in 2010 I'm going to hold off as I feel the bar has been set quite high.

 

[Shane Adams]

I was going to release one myself but with so many others shooting really great footage in 2010 I'm going to hold off as I feel the bar has been set quite high.

Don't be discouraged Stephen, my 2010 video is crap and I'm still doing a DVD....just won't be advertising on ST

 

[Michael Thompson]

Just ordered your DVD and once again would like to thank you for the very generous overseas shipping. I actually don't mind paying a couple of dollars extra, but well renown chaser has a shipping company that wants to charge more in postage to Australia than the catalog price of the DVD.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Just ordered your DVD and once again would like to thank you for the very generous overseas shipping. I actually don't mind paying a couple of dollars extra, but well renown chaser has a shipping company that wants to charge more in postage to Australia than the catalog price of the DVD.

Thanks Michael. Yeah that sounds crazy for shipping. US first class is like $1.73 and Australia is $3.96. This is why I've never bothered with extra shipping fees for overseas stuff, just never enough of a difference to matter much. If only they'd do away with those damn forms.

 

[Mark Blue]

Just ordered my copy after looking at the preview (it was way cool and very intriguing). Even though we were at Bowdle you had some footage from different angles that I want to see. I'm very torn about buying the SD versus the HD version. I swear this is the last year I will have to do that as by next year I'm going to have the Blu-Ray burner and player in my arsenal!

 

[Jason Foster]

Review Complete

I just reviewed Mike's video. Good footage Mike, I enjoyed it. Full review, with strong points and weak points is in the link below.

Mike, you did pretty good chasing this year, huh?

Review: "Hostile Winds" by Mike Hollingshead

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I just reviewed Mike's video. Good footage Mike, I enjoyed it. Full review, with strong points and weak points is in the link below.

Mike, you did pretty good chasing this year, huh?

Review: "Hostile Winds" by Mike Hollingshead

First off glad you liked it.

From the review:

I thought it creative to start with an intro, but with a lack of transitions, voice overs, and minimal graphics, it was a little cumbersome going form the intro, to the first segment, which was a winter ice storm in Iowa (I think, only heard Iowa mentioned).

Just a little music video for fun, like pretty much the vast majority of chaser videos seem to start with. There was no "documentary" intention and I don't figure in that sense a music video can be too cumbersome really. But for sure, if it was aired like that on Discovery Channel or something, then sure.

I felt like I was just thrown into the video with the assumption I would be able to know where and when specific things were happening. In the later chapters, there were quick and simple date/location title screen, but that was it for overall.

Well 99% are going to get the video from my site, so I figure it's pretty self explanatory. If one picked it up at Wal-mart or something, then ok. Worst case scenario they can just watch it to see what is in that next segment.

However, the on-camera commentary was not consistent, and in the absence it would have be nice to grab some more information on the situation happening in the video.

The problem with this here is it would be quite old by now to make each year's video explaining storm structure over and over and over. I actually don't care to make a learning video each year, beyond what one can learn just by watching. So there was no intent or said anywhere it was anything beyond a highlight video lol. One person would want even more commentary than I put on there, while the next would wish I'd just shut up and let the video do the work. If I've learned anything, it is that a bunch of facts that chasers think are necessary to include on the video, like repeated voice time stamps, that they really aren't that important. Yet I do the damn time statements all the time still lol.

I think even the chasers who like RAW footage collections may find this one a little on the long side.

But then it'd be said more of the story could have been left on there. I have a crap ton of chaser videos by now, over 100, and if there is one certainty....there are ALWAYS parts that various people will find too long. While others they'd wished were left longer. In any case, it's said probably more than once in the video description, segments are left to go as some like to watch as if they were there, not some chip choppy, fast forwarded, "Full force nature'esque" footage. It's a tough balance and I made it quite clear in the video info how parts were. Sounds like you did enjoy the left to go long thunder parts.

I believe that part way through Mike chase season he switched to a new camera. This may have been a good idea for the HD quality, but Mike didn’t seem to learn all the functions yet, especially the manual focus option, which hurt on some of even the best footage moments. The rocking back and forth of the auto focus gets a little tough. Some won’t notice it, but many will. Luckily the overall experience wasn’t handicapped by it, but you can see it.

Trust me, I'm the most anal person about auto-focus.....since 1999 at least. I never fall for auto-focus. There are extremely few instances of seeing an auto-focus hunt on there(read on). Bowlde was the first day I used the camera. No infinity lock. All I could do was at a few instances flick it over to autofocus to let it lock out there, then flick it back to manual. Given the situation at the time, I figured I'd just do that and not stop recording. The problem was the lcd and the view finder both were soaked in water, so I couldn't even see if that was focusing right. So I did that flick to auto then back to manual a couple times, to at least know parts would be good. I can think of one for sure time on there, maybe two, both Bowdle and that should be it.

That other thing you see and likely the reason you say most probably won't notice, is not autofocus. It's a stupid camera doing something stupid. Notice that "hunt" range on those others is always that same distance, just a very short range "hunt"/bounce and back, not very often at all. The camera was NOT on auto-focus. I never use auto-focus. I dont' know what the problem is but it's been reported with the TM700. You can tell it is something else because all those times it never hunts at other poitns in the footage when one would expect it to, if it was on auto-focus and it never hunts back further than that very short and brief "jitter"(other than my few times on Bowdle flicking it to auto and back to be sure). I never noticed this other thing till after June 16 and have been pretty pissed off about it since then lol(I can see it happening on other parts of Bowdle since then). I had found an infinity option but it was buried in a "scene mode". And using that, in landscape mode, it would then disable iris/exposure...great. But rather certain that was the mode all of June 16th...landscape giving the infinity focus lock. It's almost like the lens isn't parafocal and whenever you change zoom range, it's forcing it into a shortrange, short duratio auto-focus for a second, to make sure its locked out in infinity. All I know is thank god it doesn't do that anymore often than it does. And thankfully its a very short range function. And that is the clue you can tell it isn't a straight up auto-focus deal, it's always that short range deal and at seemingly odd times...while long gaps of the same exact type of scene having no "hunt". The camera is very obvious when it does a hunt in auto-focus, like you can see up the gravel road part on Bowdle and on a car coming south north of Bowlde, maybe another.....as I switched it to auto and back myself. Those other things are for sure different and for sure not because I was stupidly using a camera on auto-focus. Some other theories floating around on this deal is something to do with the IS mechanism in there. I HATE the TM700 for many reasons, all of which were learned over this whole year lol.

That video camera has made this year a whole lot harder than it needed to be. This brings me to another point of this reply. I'll critique myself. Surprised you didn't notice or mention the fan noise lol. Camera has a fan in it. Well I learned you don't want to flood the mic compartment with water or it would severely amplify that fan, which is blatantly obvious at the end of Bowdle...as well as very end of Vivian. The other thing is they put the stupid fan inside the lcd cover area. Close the lcd and the camera automatically ramps up the fan speed. This makes any drowned out mic deal that much worse. So I buy an external mic. I use that and two things happen. Get any wind on the thing and you end up with severe popping noises, which I had to remove with software. Heck at times there's really hardly any wind, just lovely popping crap. The other thing, I learned on June 16th if there is wind, that the window clamp is a bad idea! Damn mic turns into a sail, so the camera gets all rocked around. Pretty annoying at times on Dupree day. Man was I really cranking down on that clamp trying to stop it. Pretty lovely it shows itself like it did right at big tornadogenisis.

White balance, holy crap is that camera a severe joke with auto on, unlike any camera I've ever had. Sneeze anywhere near the camera and it will go from nuclear blue to nuclear green when it should be grey. Slowly learned to never use auto white balance, nor any of the presets as they are just as crazy bad. Just have to lock it on something grey for setting white balance manually.

It over exposes like a whore. I finally find a straight up exposure offset buried in the menu, cause setting iris down or up isn't always handy. But you turn the camera off then back on and guess what, that exposure offset you changed resets. SOMETIMES! It's so damn strange. There are times I turn it back on and that icon comes on saying that is in use. Most times, no, it reset the damn thing.

A more quirky video camera could not be created. Chasing alone, taking stills as much as video, and dealing with this stupid video camera, makes doing things while chasing a pretty big task.

I gave up on transitions long ago. Some of those decide to be funky and you find yourself at each clip change checking to see if the stupid editor is using them right. Or it seems there are too many and that makes it odd. So long ago I said screw transitions. I hate my voice so screw voice over work. Heck screw more time in general lol. By the time I've got it to where it ends up, I'm just done no matter what. I swear I think each year I have all figured out and what software to use that works, then one thing changes(aka camera) and wala you find yourself in a long string of crap to fix and figure out how to work.

 

[Jason Foster]

First off glad you liked it.

From the review.......

Mike...thanks for the reply. I am glad you got a chance to read the review. I figured many points were easily explained. I will always post a review before getting clarification, as I want to keep an objective view as many would not have that opportunity. I certainly understand to some degree you comment about most will purchase from the site. However I did not, and I wrote it as I watched it.

It is (as any review is) subjective. It is only one opinion. I do try perspectives I believe would be from the non-chaser world. It is all meant to give potential buyers an idea of what is there, good and bad. I doubt most on ST and within the chaser world will not have any issues with it.

Again, even with the "weakness" I did give, I enjoyed it....as noted and I'm sure your work will continue to improve, much like your photography.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

I haven't watched Mike's video, but I plan on purchasing it soon. Reviews are a great way to gauge the quality of a HIGHLIGHTS video, that's exactly what I'm looking for in a review - how good the video is as a HIGHLIGHTS video. I'm not interested in how it stands up to documentaries. I certainly wouldn't expect a highlights video to have to stand up to the scrutiny of a documentary with voice over, transitions, etc. etc.

 

[Wes Carter]

I got the video, and watched it a couple of times. It's a solid highlights video. I didn't find it too long, it's video of storms and tornadoes. If the footage takes too long, it's the storms fault for not dissipating quickly enough! I'd rather see the whole thing myself, not some choppy MTV inspired montage of video clips. That's what the 'Storm Chasers' series is for.

 

[Mike Krzywonski]

I enjoyed this DVD as well. It has some spectacular close-up tornado footage.

 

[Bill Hark]

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Mike Hollingshead's "Hostile Winds" in its entirety. Very impressive! I bought the Blu-Ray version and it worked flawlessly in my Samsung player. I have been worried about buying coasters when purchasing homemade blu-rays but so far, no problem.
The video quality is great especially on my HD television. The detail and colors are good. Mike also has mostly tripoded video and the hand-held material is fairly steady. I get headaches watching a big screen and jumpy video. I really like his videography. There is no screaming or yelling; a nice touch these days. I know Mike is a very good still photography but he does well with a video camera.

The production begins with the usual music video of storm videos that is common to most highlights. Nice selection of score and clips. Mike then has some ice storm and hoar frost scenes from last winter. I know some folks are all about the tornadoes but I enjoyed the inclusion of these scenes. His May 10th footage of the multivortex footage is good. The highlights are the Bowdle and Dupree tornadoes. Mike captures the beginning of the Bowdle tornado with nice tripoded video, then close wild video of the violent wedge. I didn't notice the multiple vortices that Mike captures early in the formation of the wedge. I also missed the early stages as I was trying to drive out of the way of the developing tornado as it approached Route 12. I totally enjoyed watching the birth of that tornadic storm. The Dupree storm section starts out a bit slow but then the action develops with multiple tornadoes. At one point I see three maybe four funnels. There is wild close shots of high contrast tornadoes. He also has some other storms and an amusing encounter with a dog that takes shelter in his chase vehicle and won't leave. As expected from Mike, there is a brief slide show of his usual gorgeous images. The emphasis is on winter night and evening scenes with fog, ice and aurora. This was definitely a nice addition to my growing collection of chase videos. I recommend Hostile Winds!

Bill Hark

 

[Skip Talbot]

I've been sitting on Mike H's Blu-ray for a couple months now. I've been meaning to watch it this whole time, and finally watched it all today. I loved it. The tornado shots are epic.

One of my favorite parts was from the 5/10 chapter, which you can actually see all of the fluid interactions in the air underneath the RFB: descending RFD's, inflow, updrafts, vortices spinning up. That was super sweet. Of course the Bowdle shots are epic and I got a kick out of seeing my van drive past there a couple times. The 6/16 Dupree chapter is also epic. Not a lot of chasers scored that event, so it was a real treat seeing this tornado fest on this highlights disc. Man I wish I chased that event (although who knows where I would have wound up the next day if I did).

Video quality is exquisite on the Blu-ray and some of the best I've seen from any chaser video. You can really see all the detail, with very little noise and great color. You feel like you are out there with the storm. I did not find any of the storm/structure segments too long. Maybe those not interested in beautiful supercells would, but they were all moments where you could stand back and say "wow" and stare at it forever. Of course Mike H is a pro when it comes to photography and the photo montage at the end was a real treat as well. Thanks for trading, Mike, loved this one!