(Click to enjoy the storm a little bigger, almost like you were there. Okay, not really)

Whew. It's around 9am right now and I just landed in Phoenix a bit after 7am after flying out from Oklahoma City this morning. A long trip, I added around 2200 miles to the lovely Hyundai Santa Fe I rented and slept in the car two of the three nights for a total of five hours. I did actually rent a hotel on Tuesday night and it was some of the best sleep I've had in awhile.

The bottom line from the trip was that I didn't really see what I wanted to see. I was hoping for beautiful, isolated supercells with gorgeous cloud structure. Ehhh...not this time. That's okay though...I had a blast, got to spend a day with an awesome stormchasing photographer named Shane Kirk that I'd never met in person before and I saw so many beautiful places I'd never seen before.

I have a ton of stories, and a video I'll be putting together of my few adventures...but right now I'll talk quickly about the photo above.

The photo above was taken in the NW corner of Nebraska on Monday night. The beautiful storm clouds you see in this shot had just passed over this road from the left side. This was a fairly intense supercell that was tornado warned and had a vortex signature on it. The fun part was I had come down this road doing about 95mph so I could not be slaughtered by the thing. Basically it was akin to walking really slow across some railroad tracks as a massive locomotive comes barreling down at you. The train barely misses you, but you get slammed with all the wind anyways.

As I was coming down the road at one point, I thought I saw stuff blowing across the road up ahead and figured it was a funnel and I was screwed. But it was just some nasty RFD (rear flank downdraft) that rocked my car all over the place.

When I finally got to a safe spot, I turned around and aimed my camera at this cell. It was just gorgeous. The photo can't do it justice. The thing was flashing non-stop and it was something to behold.

I have a few more lightning shots I may post down the road, but this was one of my favs. The first good shot on a crazy stormchasing trip.

(exif: canon eos 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 17mm, f/5.6, iso 200, 8 sec)

Tags:   20110509 Canon 5D Mark II light trails lightning nebraska roads stormchasing storms supercells thunderstorms

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(click on the image for a nicer view in lightbox)

Sometimes getting the right shot is all about being there.

I'm not going to brag about this photo being some kind of amazing composition...because in reality, it's pretty simple. At the time I was actually wishing I had something better to get into the frame than just a few saguaros. Like maybe a glacial lake in the Himalayas (whaaat?) But sometimes all it takes for me is a killer sky. And killer skies aren't always easy to come by.

I remember seeing photographs and always being jealous that they somehow lucked out to get that beautiful sunrise or sunset.

The fact is...they were there to get it. That's all it takes really.

I've grown to love getting up before dark, packing my gear, grabbing a coffee, some snacks and heading out down some desert road to see where the morning finds me. Sadly, it just isn't something I can do all the time. On this particular morning, it was around 33 degrees out, I was bundled up, hiked down a short trail and waited for the sun to peak over the Superstitions.

If you ever are wondering how you might decide whether or not there will be cool clouds the morning you decide to do a trip like this (esp when it's dark out still), usually times during or after a rain storm can be perfect. Yeah, it might be raining, but it will likely break here and there and offer stunning shots. In this one above, you can see rain falling on the left horizon, headed my way. You can also look at infrared radar to see if the skies are cloudy around your area before you head out.

Of course, a lot of this is based on Arizona. I know in places like Oregon or the east coast...just because it stops raining doesn't mean the skies wont stay gray.

Then again...if you aren't out there waiting for a spectacular moment...you'll miss it.

Oh, if you are wondering about the title...it's from Lord of the Rings. If you figure out what it means, it kind of fits the image perfectly.

(exif: canon 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 18mm, f/16, iso 100)

Tags:   20110130 5dmkii Tamron 17-35mm apache trail arizona brackets cactus clouds desert hdr mountains rain saguaro storms sunrise superstitions

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This picture is really dedicated to my wife, whom without I doubt we'd have even been in this spot. We had a nice storm system move through this past weekend and I got up real early on Sunday and spent a few hours driving out in the mountains to get some photos.

Because I'd already been out, I just didn't think about going out again because I had a lot of stuff to get done. Yet my wife comes home in the late afternoon and says "I can't believe you aren't out there with these clouds."

And she was right. I couldn't believe it either. So around 5pm we packed up Lyla and hit downtown Phoenix.

I've been wanting inside this parking garage for a long time now and this was a perfect occasion. The guy at the gate said it would cost me $12 despite no event and not a single soul parked in the garage. I asked what I could do if I just wanted to shoot some photos for an hour. He decided to let me park for free near their office in the garage itself which was awesome.

We took the elevator up to the highest floor...number seven, and as my wife told her mom later that night...I was like a kid in a candy store.

The clouds were just amazing. Stormy, huge, fluffy...floating just above our heads. The entire city was basked in this amazing light when the sun went down. I have to rank it up there with the top three sunsets I've witnessed here.

I was a snapping, bracketing fool and we were actually on our way out (because there is only so much you can take seeing your two girls bundled up, looking cold, Lyla with those little eyes saying it's probably time to go daddy) when I saw this scene. The roof of Chase Field where the Diamondbacks play can be seen on the left, which is kind of amazing because it's such a huge stadium...the roof still towers above us despite being seven levels up.

The puddle obviously makes the shot, but I also just love this cement landscape that stretches out towards the horizon.

I had a heck of a time processing this one last night, starting over several times and spending at least 2-3 hours on it. I'm kind of a perfectionist now and when I think of something being blown up to 20x30, I realize all the tiny details matter.

Can't wait to get to a few more sets from this parking garage. I have some nice shots of Chase Field itself so I hope those turn out awesome.

Wow I rambled today! Hope your week is going well!

(exif: canon 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 17mm, f/16, iso100)

Tags:   17-35mm 2.8 20110220 5dmkii arizona chase field clouds hdr light poles puddles reflections sunset

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This is the first of many, many images from the abandoned dog track north of Phoenix near Black Canyon City. I made the trek up there with my good AZ photog buddies Rick Young and Scott Wood. The place hasn't been used as a dog track since 1982 and after that it was a swap meet until closed a few years later. Now it sits there waiting for explorers to venture inside in search of hidden treasures...which for us are photographs.

There was talk that we'd go in the morning, but I pushed for the late afternoon hours, having told Rick that the seats and windows face West/Southwest, so the light coming in will be amazing while we're there and maybe we'll get a sunset out of it. Of course, I'd never been there really, only saw it from the road once. This was Rick's second time.

Well, he doubted me, saying the mountains were too close for a good sunset, but we decided to get out there around 3pm anyways and spent a couple of hours wandering the place until the sun finally did set and gave us one of the most magnificent shows in awhile. Rick called out to me from across the bleachers area, "See Mike, told you the sunset would suck."

But even if the show was good, there was nothing like sitting in those old chairs, in eerie quiet, watching this amazing sunset framed by huge windows which themselves were framed with whatever remaining glass they had left. I can't even describe the feeling...part of me wanted to just sit there and watch, and the other (more commanding) part scrambled around to find the perfect way to compose the shot.

I'm thrilled and excited to bring you more images from that trip...it was an amazing place of course, but also the very first true indoor urban exploration for me and I relished every moment.

Tags:   arizona black canyon city broken glass chairs desert dog track hdr mountains sunsets urbex windows

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Just under a year ago I captured a beautiful, slightly snowy sunset on this mountain range known as the Four Peaks.These mountains are at the 7,000 foot level, so they tend to get a dusting of snow once or twice a year. You just never know when it's going to happen or how many times. In fact, after the previous one last January, there hasn't been snow up there until today. Once it melts, it could be another year before it happens again (although I think we'll see more in the coming weeks).

All that to say...when there is snow up on the peaks, you have to go. I dragged my wife and daughter out of the house around noon today and this shot was taken close to 5pm. Needless to say, no nap for Lyla, a long day for my wife reading magazines, books and watching the snow fall as we drove around. I love them both for putting up with me. It's so very rare to see snow fall around the Phoenix area and this storm system moving through will be the coldest since 2007. After a morning movie, I could see some storms popping up north of town and it looked like the Beeline Highway would see the most action, plus Four Peaks is in that direction. I wanted to just take a drive and see what we saw...and that resulted in some beautiful clouds, at least five separate snow showers and a boatload of photographs.

The clouds capping the peaks in this image were the last set of snow showers to roll through before it was done for the day. I was running frantically through desert brush, hurdling prickly pears, getting stuck by needles...all to find the perfect composition. The goal of course was to contrast the snowy peaks with the desert floor below and these two Saguaro sentinels proved worth enough to be included in the framing.

I'm pretty sure I saw my Twitter buddy Ted Wendel out there...check out his shot taken probably within minutes of mine.

Tags:   arizona cactus clouds desert four peaks hdr mountains saguaro sky snow storms sunset

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