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sea smoke and tight vortex
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
This is a followup to my previous (111307) post of a 3 part composite showing vortices in sea smoke over the Atlantic Ocean. Much info from that comment is relevant here because the left and right parts of the composite were shot the same morning as this photo.
I'm not really looking for feedback on the photo (very difficult conditions and narrow time window, worse than shooting moving wildlife), but rather hoping to connect with someone who also has direct experience watching and photographing these vortices. Ideally this would be a meteorologist who could provide some theoretical understanding of what's happening here and why it happens. Secondarily, if I can educate others about what's out there and prod them into getting some good pics of the phenomenon, we will all be richer for it.
This shot shows the best vortex of the day at its peak of tightness, with a spray zone that has climbed most of the way up the tighter center part of the vortex. The rotation of the center part was impossible to see, but the spray zone rotation was very clear, because the reduced rotation speed allows the eye to track detail better (just as in a tornado spray zone). The serpentine movement of the vortex against the dark background was exactly like a tornado or waterspout.
During my 30 minutes of shooting after seeing the first vortex, at least a dozen were visible at various points offshore, roughly 300 to maybe 1000 m away. A half hour after the sun cleared the fog bank, there were no more vortices- plenty of sea smoke still, but only incoherent turbulence in the vertical circulation process.
On the photo technical side, there is a bit of crud in the shadows from some contrast enhancement and sharpening in Photoshop, but the main theme of the vortex and its structure is better for it. Overall, not so bad for a first generation ultrazoom with only 2 MP resolution (Olympus 700C). I'm waiting for another day like this with my Canon S2 and hoping for a serious cold snap. |
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Hello Bob! Very original seascape. Amazing fog. Fantastic clouds. Very interesting picture. Best regard!
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