Who Originally Took This Somewhat Famous Photo?

The story I heard is that this was taken over Lake Okeechobee in Florida sometime back in the 1970's. This photo has been used for everything to examples of hurricanes, EL-Nino and global warming by the news media. I just hope the photographer has been making royalities from this.
 
I remember seeing that pic for the first time in an issue of National Geographic in the early to mid '90s. It was featured in an article about lightning, and the picture was described as a lightning strike and waterspout over Lake Okeechobee, Fla.

Ten people must have e-mailed me that photoshopped pic with the oil rig earlier this year.
 
if my memory serves me correctly... the guy was doing lightning photography. Set the camera up to do some long exposures, and when he retrieved his pics, he had that waterspout picture. I forget the source, but I believe it was in the NatGeo from the 90's.
 
Fred Smith is the photographer.

One source mentions:
Amateur photographer Fred Smith photographed the waterspout and lightning on June 15, 1991 from his backyard overlooking Lake Okeechobee, Florida.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/not_what_you_want_to_see/

Jesse Ferrell of AccuWeather mentions it was taken in June 15, 1993
http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-...matrix/archives/2006/04/freds_lightning_1.asp

http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-...rmatrix/archives/2006/04/weather_photos_1.asp
 
It was on the cover of the Preprints from the 1993 AMS 17th Conference on Severe Local Storms.

The reference to the front cover states:

"The picture of this tornado and a lightning stroke over Lake Okeechobee was taken at approximately 10 p.m. on 15 June 1991." and "The photograph was taken and kindly supplied by Mr. Fred Smith, who retains all rights. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited."
 
I have a Nat Geo mousepad with that photo on it. When i saw the photoshopped version with the oil rig I like" What the F*** is this???" I hate it when someone else ruins a beautiful photo and claims it as theirs.
 
Benjamin Rock said:
I have a Nat Geo mousepad with that photo on it. When i saw the photoshopped version with the oil rig I like" What the F*** is this???" I hate it when someone else ruins a beautiful photo and claims it as theirs.
Click to expand...

I'll second that one. That is a real cool pic; on of my all-time favorites.

While I realize that Photoshop serves a very real and useful function, it makes me cringe a little because of the number of ways it can be abused. In the future, just how is one going to be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction?

Personally, I guess I'm a bit of a purist. If I take a great shot, I'll naturally be pleased. If I blow it, too bad. In any case, I'd rather all my photography stayed "real". The photo should express what the camera "saw", nothing more and nothing less.

There, I'll get off my soap box now ;)


John
VE4 JTH
 
The third one down, a photograph from the famous Laverne, OK event, was photoshoped by another photographer who shared the digital use rights from a previous agent. By contract, they are supposed to title the image as "manipulated." Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Warren
 
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The poster in my home office

Here is the poster where I got the copyright info. It is a predominant poster in my home office....which is a mess right now, sorry!

IMG_4922st.jpg


In the large size, it looks really good, and I'm sure has been fully worked over to be as good as it is. I can tell that there is a slight blur to the bottom of the funnel, which likely is a result of a short time exposure. It certainly looks to be the tornadic type of waterspout. I bet it wouldn't be too hard to find the exact spot, since there isn't all that many radio towers in Okeechobee. Perhaps someone down that way could try (for fun) to find the spot.
 
Thanks guys for all the useful information. Another mystery solved. We storm chasers sure know our storms and storm pictures! :D
 
Warren Faidley said:
The third one down, a photograph from the famous Laverne, OK event, was photoshoped by another photographer who shared the digital use rights from a previous agent. By contract, they are supposed to title the image as "manipulated." Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Warren
Click to expand...

Is the lightning yours, Warren? :(

It's clearly a hack-and-paste job. The fine detail and halo around the bolt are things you'd never see in daylight, even beneath a storm.


I seem to recall the lightning + tube making the cover of NG way back when.
 
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