Summer Fireworks and Storms

You can a pic here from the fireworks display that I took in the Phoenix area; it was challenging in the respect that I was trying to walk around with a tripod in the dark in the middle of a crowd!

Some of the things we have to fight against as photographers: crowds, bad weather, cramped spaces and our filters or other photographic equipment that gets scratched or smashed in the process. I've ruined several filters during a sand storm, and then accidentally scratching the surface. I love to photograph, and have photographed sunsets, seals, lakes, woods, dunes, the Grand Canyon, a few weddings, some closeups of anything, and also, storms. When I've chased storms, getting close to the storm was scary and exciting to me at the same time, especially when I would see lowering clouds all around. It makes you want to run away and stare all at the same time. Some of the supercell clouds that produce tornados I call wedding cake clouds; they look like wedding cakes because there is a lot of circulation in the cloud that causes it to expand upwards. In the cloud picture here, you can see a lowering cloud, which is also called a supercell. You can see a lowering right in the middle of it, which is the start of a wall cloud, which is the part of the supercell that contains possible tornados. It was taken in Kansas and it produced some tornados but not when I was there.

I'm in absolute awe and amazement at some of the storm chasers that actually get right in front of the tornado with a triangular contraption that will try to record the inside of a tornado when the tornado rides on top of it. It's very dangerous work, but if they can find out more about how tornados work, it is very valuable information. Most experienced storm chasers know what position to be in to be as safe as possible from the tornadic storms. The most dangerous time to chase storms is at night. You can't hardly see the tornados at night and many times they're rain wrapped.

Phoenix, Arizona gets a lot of lightning storms, especially during the monsoon season, which is in August. I've also photographed lightning but not often, since you still need a tripod at night and metal attracts electricity. Last year, we had an uncanny amount of lightning during the storms, that you could hear for about two hours at a time nonstop. In Phoenix, during the monsoon season, we get sand storms, lightning, strong winds at times and a little rain at times. Right now, it's very hot at around 113 degrees or so every day. Hopefully, it will cool off soon.