I'm a pretty easy going guy. I see people do really stupid things all the time, but I usually just let it go. One thing has been irritating me for years though and I'm finally about to go off on it: people walking into my frame while I'm shooting. This is an incredibly rude and inconsiderate thing to do. There's nothing quite as infuriating as somebody walking straight in front of my camera and it happens constantly.
2,000 copies are currently being unloaded from a cargo ship in Los Angeles. First shipments of the book will be rolling out beginning mid February. You can order from Weathersnapshot. It retails for $99.99 (plus tax and shipping, but you can win your very own FREE signed, first edition copy right here! Simply follow the two steps below and you're registered. The winner will be announced Monday, February 1st at 7pm CST.
With social media being the primary outlet for photographers, it has become common practice for pages, accounts, and websites with large followings to post photographer's images without permission. If an image of yours goes viral it is basically guaranteed it's going to be used in some form without your permission.
I encourage people to experiment with their editing. Post processing software is essential in bringing life to digital images. One thing I see way too much of from people though is oversaturating the heck out of their pictures.
Photography is art and colors are pretty. I get it. When first learning photography I had a brief period where my images were way over edited. It can be tempting to slide those vibrance and saturation levels up, but at what point is it too much?
Having a baby early is the most frightening experience I have been through . Nothing else has even come close.
August 22, 2015 felt like a normal day. Savannah, Chase, and I were at the grocery store that evening when Savannah felt a "pop", her water broke. I feared we had lost our daughter, she wasn't due for 10 more weeks.
Storm chasers Zach Roberts, Savannah Williams, and Jason Weingart launched a Kickstarter at the beginning of January in an attempt to help fund their new book, which breaks down the dynamics that drive severe weather. With 3 days remaining in the 30 day campaign, the trio has managed to raise just under $40,000.
We've all seen the pictures that look like the sky is short circuiting. Some people hate them, but I get a crazy response when I create these. It seems like every time I post one, I get several messages from people asking how to do this process. I've been promising to put this tutorial together forever, so here goes.
In May 2014, Savannah and I decided to spend the weekend in Marfa, Texas. She had always wanted to visit the town, and I was curious about the Marfa Mystery Lights. Coincidentally, the only chance for decent storms that weekend happened to be in southwest Texas. We got up in the morning, packed the car, and hit the road for Marfa.
Happy Independence Day! Taking photos of fireworks is a lot like shooting lightning. Both require a long exposure, change quickly, and are very bright. They both can also make EXTREMELY BORING images if not handled properly. There are millions of images of fireworks floating around online, what are you going to do to make yours different?
I've always been a big fan of horror movies, and one of my favorite series is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so when I discovered the house from the 2003 Michael Bay film was just one county away, I had to go see it. After a few minutes on Google, I found the exact location of the house and a few blog posts and videos from people that had already gone. The first thing that caught my attention was a sign that read, " PRIVATE PROPERTY & ROAD. KEEP OUT OR GO TO JAIL OR WORSE. REST IN PEACE"
This morning, my day started like any other. I climbed out of bed, turned on the computer, walked over to the Kuerig, and started brewing a cup of coffee. I sat down with my coffee, signed on to facebook, and began checking notifications and replying to messages. That's when I opened up a message from a friend, linking me to someone's facebook page. I clicked the link, and sure enough, there was an image of a supercell I shot in 2012, except it was totally oversaturated, contrast pumped up to all hell, and someone else had their name slapped across the bottom of it. They were taking my work, and trying to pass it off as their own!
May 31, 2013 was the only time that I ever thought that I might actually die while chasing storms. An erratically behaving supercell; a violent, rain-wrapped wedge tornado; and a tv weatherman giving citizens the worst possible advice, "This tornado is unsurvivable above ground. If you can't get below ground, you need to drive south"... All the ingredients came together that day resulting in a disaster like which has never been seen in the weather community.
I began chasing thunderstorms in the fall of 2009. Over the course of the last three and a half years, I have seen some amazing phenomenon, but the one that always eluded me was a high contrast, photogenic tornado. Three and a half years, and twenty thousand miles on the road later, I finally found what I had been looking for all this time.
