Steve,
That's too bad about the tornadoes. I lived in Colorado for about five years and never saw one. I saw what looked like a tornado once that did not touch the ground. I heard about another tornado that was near our house. I heard from someone else that it looked like chimney smoke, that went high up the sky. It was small and only damaged someone's fence and maybe part of the roof.
When I'm in the car, I often am ready for anything. I've taken photos of car and motorcycle accidents too, but I don't think I showed them to anyone on-line. The accidents were not serious or bloody so that I think I could have showed them. But yes, if I see anything "newsworthy", I'll be out taking photos of it. Once we had a fire in small town and I documented that for a long time (over several days). One homeless person died there, who was apparently sleeping at the wrong place and the wrong time. They found the body later under the rubble. But of course, if I saw the body I would not post it on-line. Legally I could, but I have my own ethics about something like that. It's the same with my street photos of people. If I see something that I feel is embarrassing about someone (using my own judgement) I won't post that either.
What was the reason you did not take pictures of the destruction? Did you forget the camera? Or was it for personal reasons that you would rather not discuss? I'm just curious. I like to encourage people to use their cameras all the time, whether it is a cell phone or an expensive camera/lens etc.
If I had seen the National Guard, they would have had their pictures taken. 😀 I probably would have waved to them and got some cool images. I used to take pictures of protesters in Portland, Oregon as if I was a reporter, but it got to be too dangerous over the years. I think they did not like us photographers documenting any of their illegal activities. At least, that's my guess. But I stayed out of harm's way and now no longer do that. That was when I was a lot younger.
