風雨欲來 Just Before the Thunder Storm

Today is June 8, 2011, a very hot afternoon with temperature at 38C.  At 7pm, I went to Scarborough Bluffs Park with my friend for sunset photography.  Although the weather was terribly hot, we saw many visitors and families getting together for enjoyment and BBQ in the park.  We knelt on the rocky beach and started setting up the camera.  This was my shortest time in photography in my record.
 It only lasted for 3 minutes!.  After I had taken the 14th photos, the sky changed dark suddenly.  While I thought that this was unusual, rain came.  Immediately we packed up.  Less than 10 seconds, thunder storm arrived, sweeping clouds of yellow sand onto the dim sky.  Rain poured fiercely. We ran madly! Storm and rainpour swept hardly on our face, causing our vision so blurred that we could not open our eyes.  A loud crack sound heard followed by the breakdown of two trees.  They were thrown vigorously onto the sky and eventually dropped on our side.  It was lucky that we did not get a direct hit!   After tremendous hardship, we finally dashed into our car in the parking lot afar.  We were completely wet through.  Rainpour mixed with hailstones struck hard on the roof and windscreen of our car.  On our way home, the road was blocked by a huge falling tree.  It was lucky to have some kind-hearted drivers volunteered to move it away to prevent a serious traffic conjection.   This was my unforgetable experience.  I learnt from the evening news that Toronto had been attacked by snow storm with tornado for one hour.  As time for taking photos was so short, I tried to make use of the last photo to do something intersting.  As I like to take photos in RAW format, I have used digital darkroom and HDR techniques to turn an unfavorable and poorly contrasted photo into a more acceptable, unusual and interesting piece of art!

今天是2011年6月8月，是一個非常炎熱的下午，氣溫超過38度。約了友人在傍晚7時到士嘉堡懸崖拍海潮和日落。天氣雖然悶熱，想不到燒烤場卻十分熱鬧，遊人闔家野餐，樂也融融！我們蹲在湖邊，竪起三腳架，開始拍攝。這次是我獵影以來拍攝時間最短的一次，祇有三分鐘！剛拍完第14張照片，天色突然轉暗，覺得不妙，天上開始下着雨點，馬上收拾器材，不到十秒，狂風大作，捲起黃沙，大雨傾盆。我們發足狂奔。狂風夾着雨水猛向面上撲打，眼睛也模糊不清，難以張開。噼啪巨響，身旁兩棵大樹被狂風吹斷，捲往空中，最後捽在身旁，幸好未被擊中。幾經辛苦，終於鑽進車廂，這時全身經已濕透。雨水傾盆車頂，一塊塊冰粒打向車頂車窗！回程路有大樹被風吹斷，攔在路中，幸有好心司機，將樹拉開，不致產生車龍。這是我獵影的一次難忘的經歷！晚間新聞，才知道多倫多地區受雪暴及龍捲風侵襲，長達一小時。今次拍攝的照片和效果有限，但我嘗試在最後的一張照片中找到奇趣。所有照片以RAW 拍攝，才有機會利用後期調整，以HDR方法顯現暗位層次﹐製作一張獨特別緻的趣味作品！

Nikon D200, AF18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

Album: 風雨欲來 Just Before the Thunder Storm