The Life of a Storm Chaser in FILM / THEATRE / VIDEO WORK & CORPSE NATION

I apologize for the poor quality, but a few of these really go back a ways… ancient in this new digital age. I wanted to post early shots over more recent ones.

As a life-long storm chaser, sometimes (especially in Florida) storms just come out of nowhere.

This one hit hard and fast, I didn’t have any pro gear with me just my cell phone and we’re talking 15 years ago. I was extremely fortunate to get this capture.

The strike was approximately 75 - 100 yards away and it’s rare in that I have never seen another photograph of lightning like it. In fact, I’ve only ever seen one another that was similar and this was when I was storm chasing in Kansas back in college. More on that in a bit.

So of course, one of my favorite things is cloud watching, particularly before or after a severe storm. Prior to the rain falling overhead, you can witness some truly spectacular images.

(The above was taken after a severe thunderstorm struck at sunset).

(These are called cumulonimbus mammatus, clouds that tornado’s are spawned from).

(This is a very rare “roll cloud”)

(Not a great shot here, but a shelf cloud. Common with severe storms).

(Here, I was given chase, but stuck in traffic. It’s just rain falling, but for fun, let’s call it a mushroom cloud).

(This one kills me, I was stuck in the hospital on an extended stay, a storm hits and I can’t chase, took this from my hospital room window).

(And here’s a shot of lightning striking part of the building I was on while on the roof photographing the storm. You can see the top of my shoe at the bottom of the pic. I was lying on my back looking up).

I don’t have a picture of it, but I’ll tell you the story of the closest I’ve ever come to being struck.

When I was chasing in Kansas, I would usually go to a part of the highway away from everything (which isn’t too difficult out there) and set up my camera / tripod etc… (35mm SLR, yeah you heard that right! FILM CAMERA!) and set up in front of my car. I hadn’t yet got anything together as I was studying the storm to figure out the best position to face my equipment. I was leaning against the hood watching the coming storm, when all of a sudden an extremely bright bolt hit only 25 - 30 feet from me right on the highway!

It was surreal. It was directly in my line of vision and you know how on older computer screens how one image would slowly dissolve into another where you could see each individual pixel disappear? That’s exactly what it looked like as the bolt dissipated, as if it (slow motion) pixilated into nothing. I know this doesn’t sound plausible, but I saw trillions of individual electrons & ions just vanish into thin air like those old computer screens all within a few seconds, then I was completely blind! All I could see was white. I felt my way back into the car, rubbed my eyes, but it took several minutes before I could see anything. I wasn’t struck, but had severe blisters all over my skin (anywhere that was exposed (keep in mind that @ approximately 50,000 degrees, lightning is up 5x hotter than the surface of the sun!)). Seems like yesterday, but it was half a lifetime ago.

I’ll leave you guys with one more photo, the very first picture of lightning I’ve ever taken. I was inexperienced to put it mildly. The storm was so active, I had my camera in one hand, the other on the steering wheel and was shooting through my car windshield. (Which is why you see some squiggly lines in the background (car and streetlights from far away) I was moving and using a slow shutter speed.

ADDENDUM: I also developed this photograph.

I wanted to post older pics and to share with you all that no professional camera was used to capture ANY of these images. I do have a professional camera now, but due to poor health, I haven’t been able to chase or afford the lenses I need.

So enjoy the weather, but ALWAYS respect the awesome power of mother nature!