https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJbruYN9usUD9efjhHhupOMBT8cBRrb-i3lB4OsJYqRjxvkCrKHcG4o4qAcRLYpB3V7TAgwrD_k9fimwZ4idKZeD7ddHhJ8SiZ0Hvh2_8CXFIXOS52Jp4Cw_k4XrF7qzKWz9hhIBSc2Q/w753-h214/IMG_0696+0697+ready.jpg All I want to do is take pictures: Into the Storm

Saturday, July 6, 2019

Into the Storm

When you combine a fascination with the weather with a penchant for photography, you may find yourself with a storm chaser. In my case, I found myself with a storm chasing roommate - completely self-educated and obsessed with all things atmospheric.
(You can check out his stuff for yourself here)

Once or twice a year, he heads to the weather alleys of the USA, sometimes with a professional tour, sometimes on his own, in search of  mammatus clouds and hail storms and tornadoes with sub-vortices. (I dunno either).

Sometimes, he doesn't have to go that far.

On July 6, 2019, his newsfeeds were blowing up about a storm brewing near Cochrane, just northwest of Calgary, Alberta. When he invited me and a friend to go storm chasing with him, I was hardly going to say no. He was so excited. And we were excited for him.

Cochrane was a bust, but our mission was not.

We hit the ring road around Calgary and headed southeast, following the tweeters and an array of weather apps he keeps in his back pocket. I was shooting out the window of the truck, watching the storm come over the city and head south. We drove and drove (and somehow didn't get pulled over) until finally we got around this thing, and I was able to get my very first (and one and only decent) storm photo, somewhere east of Chestermere, Alberta.


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