Most people hear tornado sirens and run for cover. I hear them and grab my camera as I make a mad dash for the door. My heart starts pounding as I scan the horizon, hoping to catch sight of that unmistakable, swirling mass of clouds. With camera in hand, I watch and wait—only to be disappointed time after time.
This strange fascination I have with photographing tornadoes has been going on for more than twenty years. I’ve chased storms, watched the skies, and spent countless hours hoping that someday I would finally capture the perfect tornado photograph.
Another item on my bucket list was traveling to Italy, and especially visiting what I hoped was my ancestral home of Guardavalle, Italy. I didn’t quite make it to Guardavalle, but I did get close. And, as if the trip itself wasn’t exciting enough, I somehow managed to photograph a tornado while traveling through Sicily.
I remember traveling down the highway with our tour group when the guide suddenly looked over and casually said, “A tornado. It must be raining somewhere.”
And that was it.
No one seemed particularly concerned that there was a tornado nearby. Meanwhile, I was practically beside myself with excitement. I know it looks small and far away in these photographs, but believe me—it was much larger and much closer than it appears.
The pictures simply don’t capture how huge this thing really was. I’ll admit, it was a little scary, but my excitement over finally photographing a tornado far outweighed the fear.
I can still remember turning to my daughter with a huge grin on my face in the middle of my frantic picture-taking and saying, “I can’t believe I’m in Italy and I’m photographing a tornado!”
Out of all the places I could have encountered one, Italy certainly wasn’t what I expected.
But somehow, there I was—standing in Sicily, camera in hand, photographing a tornado.
It was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of my vacation!
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