Central America’s smallest country, El Salvador, is being increasingly battered by the effects of climate change – by drought, floods, and violent storms. The small organization CESTA has long been fighting for more environmental protection in its own country.
Tag Archives: Storms
Views: ‘Vorticity 4’ – Storms In Timelapse (4K)
Filmed and Edited by: Mike Oblinski
Music by Péter Nánási: peternanasi.bandcamp.com/
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I made my first Vorticity film. The one goal I had that year was to get a tornado on time-lapse for the first time ever. That happened and it’s been a wild, incredible ride since. The storms I’ve witnessed have been moving, stunning and a few of them, legendary (at least to us chasers!).
The 2021 season was no different. The number of supercells we saw and the level of structure was absolutely amazing. From Sudan, Texas to Malta, Montana…the chases were a blast and the time-lapses I caught were just fantastic fun. So many supercells, so many chases…I think I counted about 27 days we chased from late April to late June. Definitely one of the more active springs in recent years. It was good enough that I felt I could put out another worthy entry in the Vorticity series, so hopefully you agree!
Morning News Podcast: Deadly Winter Storms, Capitol Riot Commission
Deadly winter storm stretches across 25 states, Nancy Pelosi outlines steps to create 9/11-style commission to investigate Capitol riot, and Tennessee man leaves $5 million to dog in his will.
Top New Timelapse Videos: ‘Monsoon 6’ (4K) – Storm Chasing By Mike Oblinski
Filmed and Edited by: Mike Oblinski
Music by Péter Nánási: peternanasi.bandcamp.com/
I’ve never spent two years making a Monsoon film before, so this was a first. Part of it was wanting to put out the best possible film I could, but a good chunk of it was the fact our recent summer storm seasons have been subpar at best, with 2020 the worst I can remember. 2019 wasn’t horrible, but there was about zero dust storms, with only a single haboob clip to salvage from that summer, so I wanted to wait until I had something more to add to it.
Luckily for me, August 16th, 2020 happened and we scored a fantastic haboob chase from Casa Grande to Gila Bend along Interstate 8. It was what I had been hoping and praying for to complete this film. That was the only legit haboob day of the past two years and I’m glad I was there for it! Not only for this film, but for the BBC and one of their upcoming projects I’m proud to be a part of!
A lot was left on the cutting room floor, in fact, it might be an entire other film, but it was important to me to include only the best, most unique stuff I saw the last two years, plus keep it under 9 minutes long! Finding music was a struggle, so I decided to work once again with Péter Nánási and have a custom score created for Monsoon 6. And boy, he knows me well and hit it out of the park! Thank you sir!
I hope you enjoy this film! It’s the result of 30,000+ miles, hundreds of thousands of time-lapse frames captured and 60+ days chasing. Some highlights include epic downbursts, gorgeous light, mountains, desert, a stunning supercell and yes, rainbows. Photographed all across the great state of Arizona, where I’ve lived my entire life.
Morning News Podcast: Hurricane Sally Lashes Gulf, Oregon Fire Search
NPR News Now reports: Hurricane Sally hits the Gulf Coast, missing people search in Oregon fire areas and other top news.
Morning News Podcast: Politics Of Post Office Changes, Iowa Outages, California Blackouts
NPR News Now reports: The political issues surrounding operational changes at the Post Office, Iowa power outages after this week’s storms and California blackouts.
New Timelapse Travel Video: “Rogue Storm” In Bagan, Myanmar (2020)
Filmed and Edited by: Martien Janssen
Ancient city of temples Bagan lies in the desert of Myanmar and is known as a dry zone. The fierce monsoon can barely touch this region with its rains and storms. Years pass without a single lightning storm.
Imagine my luck when during my visit one night 3 lightning storms passed over Bagan and I was able to capture a bunch a timelapses with my 3 cameras. This is a movie about that lucky night and the monsoon clouds that pass over and by Bagan.
Top New Timelapse Videos: “Vorticity 3 (4K)” – Storm Chasing By Mike Olbinski
Filmed and Edited by: Mike Olbinski
This past spring was definitely a crazy time. I wasn’t even sure how much I’d be able to chase with everything going on, but luckily the storms waited until the middle of May to truly get going and things seemingly had gotten much better then and made chasing possible.
One thing you will notice in this film is a lack of tornadoes. It was a bad year for them right up until July when I stopped chasing! But the structure was magnificent. So many legendary days. I wasn’t even planning on doing a film this year, as I was figuring to do what I did with the previous Vorticity: Wait to gather up two years worth of footage in order to give you nothing but the very best. Incredibly, this year was so good, I had no idea how NOT to do a film, because if next year was anywhere close, I’d be making a 30 minute movie or having to leave a ton of clips on the cutting room floor.
So I started to work on it, first with the music as always…and I love Ryan Taubert. His album “Fool” actually had four tracks on it I love, but individually they didn’t quite have it all. So I spent a few hours, blended four of them, came up with a nine minute song and boom, went to work!
I wanted to do something a little more methodical, slower paced and majestic this time, fitting with the music and the footage. I hope you enjoy that! The lightning was off charts this year for me, so much night-time structure and awesomeness, plus the daytime supercells were incredible.
Top New Timelapse Videos: “Reverent” – A Spectacular Fusion Of Storm Film & Music By Mike Olbinski (4K)
Filmed and Edited by: Mike Olbinski
Song by: Bullet & Cass (“The Way You Do”)
A couple years ago I made a black and white time-lapse film just for fun, and now here we are with the third installment in the series. It’s a way to play around in the winter months with something new and different, get creative and also help pass the time until spring returns!
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this one, and couldn’t even find the perfect song for it, until the duo Bullet & Cass emailed me about wanting to use my footage for their upcoming debut single. I get a lot of those kinds of emails, so I didn’t think much of it…until I clicked on the preview links for their two tracks…and wow, I was blown away by how much I loved “The Way You Do.” A few seconds into the song, I was immediately laying down tracks to it in my head. I listened all the way to the end and knew I had found my song. We did a straight up trade…footage for the track, and the editing began in earnest.
After I finished editing back in November, I needed a title. It took me weeks. The song has a sort of folksy haunting old west vibe to it (at least to me) and I needed the perfect name to go along with it. I finally pulled up a list of old west terms and when I stumbled across Reverent…I knew it was the one. Not only did it sound and feel right, but it actually is how I feel standing out there a lot. These storms are powerful and deadly, and sometimes you are just staring out at them with this deep respect and admiration for what you are witnesses. Or perhaps, in my case, for the one who created it.
I hope you enjoy this film as much as I do. All footage in it is from 2019, with some unseen monsoon clips in there as well. Definitely felt like it was taking a risk on the song choice itself, especially as lyrics aren’t my normal deal. But I love it, love it, love it and I hope you do too! And if you do, please visit the links up top and buy the single and check out their website!
Boomers Daily 