Bill Hark
EF5
After seeing the short clips that Reed Timmer donated to Storms of 2007 and posted clips on YouTube, I have been eagerly awaiting the TornadoVideos.net 2007 chase highlights. I finally purchased a copy and absolutely love it. This is definitely “Extreme Tornadoes†with up-close amazing footage of flying debris. The segments on Storms of 2007 are only a “preview†as there is much footage that couldn’t be shown due to space limitations. Almost all of the video is in a wide-screen format. I am assuming the original is HD and down converted. I don’t know the specific camera though it seems to do well in low-light. The SD quality is very good. Most of the chase segments start with a narrated summary of the set-up with charts and satellite images. There are nice views of each storm before the actual tornadoes. The two flagship tornadic events are May 4th and June 23. The May 4th video is a very close view of the Ellis County, OK tornado ground circulation along with wide views of the beautiful white tube. Although narrow in diameter, the circulation is extremely intense. The chasers are close enough to hear the waterfall sound of the tornado. This is the famous video where they have to back up to get away from the tornado. The other wild video is of the June 23, Manitoba tornado. Again, there are very close shots of the cone to almost wedge-shaped tornado. At times, there are multiple vortices. This tornado rivals the Manchester tornado for beauty and intensity. Again, more flying debris at close-range. There is a lot more to this video than was seen on Storms of 2007. Either May 4th or June 23 is enough justification to buy this DVD, but there are multiple other tornadic events. I like the flying debris from Tulia, Texas on April 21 and the massive dark wedge from May 5th. They have another cool tornado including multiple vortices from Briscoe Co Texas, March, 28 2007 and a very narrow tornado from New Mexico on March 23. The May 22 footage is typical of what many chasers including myself obtained of the slow moving photogenic storm. There also are longer distance views of a tornado in the Badlands on June 6. Most of the footage is hand-held but held steady enough. My only complaint is that each chapter is self limited and the DVD goes back to the menu for the next choice. I can’t sit and watch the whole thing without hitting any buttons. Over all, I really love the intense tornado action. This video is a bargain at $19.95. Disclaimer: I have met Reed Timmer and ?Don Giuliano once and traded a few e-mails with Reed. I don’t think I’ve met the other chasers: Joel Taylor, Dave Holder, Ken Cole or Dean Schoeneck. Here is a link to tornadovideos.net and on the page is a link for Extreme Tornadoes:
http://tornadovideos.net/
Bill Hark
http://www.harkphoto.com
http://tornadovideos.net/
Bill Hark
http://www.harkphoto.com
