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Americana at night, amature photography

IMADreamer

By IMADreamer
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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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So as a few of you know in my younger days I was a meteorologist so obviously I'm a bit bonkers about weather, this means doing crazy things like chasing after storms and taking lightning photos. I'll be honest I stink at taking lightning photos but along the way I discovered that I love playing around at night with shutter speeds and aperture settings.

 

So as you can see from these pics I'm OBVIOUSLY new to this photography thing but I just loved the look of my car in this pic. It's completely unprocessed, straight off the camera. I can't wait to try more, any tips would be great.

 

IMG_1034.jpg

 

As for the lightning pics, well these were taken at work, which unfortunately has alot of obstructed views, but still it's a start.

 

IMG_0270.jpg

 

IMG_0503.jpg

 

IMG_0494.jpg

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Laguna

Laguna

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You're a meto!?!!?

 

*holds back rage*

 

haha. I'm so sick of the weather predictions NEVER being right.

 

We put men on the moon and maybe soon Mars but we still cannot get what's coming 24 hours in advance right. I really really wish they would invest more money in weather.

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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You're a meto!?!!?

 

*holds back rage*

 

haha. I'm so sick of the weather predictions NEVER being right.

 

We put men on the moon and maybe soon Mars but we still cannot get what's coming 24 hours in advance right. I really really wish they would invest more money in weather.

 

I USED to be a Meteorologist. lol The company I worked for went under so I had to move on. Now I do other things. I would love to do it again someday but I doubt it's in the cards.

 

Weather forecasting is extremely accurate unless it's winter, the weather is changing, or if you only need to know what it will be like after the next 12 hours. lol

 

The problem is technology. The field of Meteorology lacks it. Radars have come a very long way, even in the last 10 years but we still can only see things when they are happening, which means we miss their beginning stages. There are literally thousands of parameters that go into forecast models and even with today's computers it takes hours to run the models. This means we can only run them a couple times a day. Some less then that. Also in the US we have a huge problem caused by our size. We don't have nearly enough radar stations to the point where in some places they have a downright dangerous lack of coverage. The same is also true for our ability to do upper air analysis. As it is now only some NWS stations launch weather balloons, the fact is every airport in the country needs to be doing it to get the real story of what's going on.

 

I completely understand the frustration of the public in their weather forecasting. Growing up as a farm boy weather was a huge part of my life and the weathermen always seemed to get it wrong. Unfortunately meteorology as a science gets about 1/1000 of the funding it needs to do it right and because of the reasons above most meteorologist are forecasting with one hand tied behind their back so to speak.

 

I know you didn't want that big long explanation, but if public safety really is an issue, then we need to figure out how to upgrade our weather infrastructure and fund research.

 

I love that lightning shot!!!!

I have a few lightning shots that I can share if you'd like. :)

 

I would love to see them!

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Laguna

Laguna

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Oh, I liked it.

 

I agree, I don't blame the meteorologists, I blame the funding that they are not getting. I know we can develop the technology and do better and it pisses me off how we don't upgrade it.

 

On Sunday, they were saying rain on Wed and Thurs. 50% chance. Now it rained today which had a 10% chance and it all of a sudden changed to 60% chance of rain on Tuesday and clear the rest of the week.

 

Last week it was 50% chance of rain on Wednesday, not even a drop came down. It had 0% for the whole weekend. It POURED for a good 2 hours on Friday.

 

That kind of stuff really pisses me off.

 

Welcome to IL though...I hate this state because of its weather system.

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XQIZT

XQIZT

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Nice shot...have fun with that camera...a DSLR can give you really great shots with no need for additional photoshopping. And the best part is that if you screw up, ya just delete and try again. :thumbsup:

 

I haven't tried lightning yet...I should though...we get plenty of opportunities all summer long.

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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There was a HELLA bad storm this morning that ran through here...

 

Nice shots!

 

 

Yeah you guys got pounded over night from the looks of things. You guys might get a break today but tomorrow your back under the gun.

 

We are just dealing with super hot temps here. 101 heat index at 9am. :willy: Slight chance of rain. blah.

 

 

I definitely wish we had digital cameras back when I was chasing more often, I saw some great weather.

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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Well I was all geared up for a chase since the storms were pretty close by, so the gf an I hopped in the car after work and by the time we got out of town I had the radar up on the laptop, only to find not much was happening. lol Watches, warning, you name it we had it and it was really unimpressive. So we headed about five miles east of my town to a good vantage point to see what this one cell popping right over my town was going to do. Very explosive development, tops about 50k feet and climbing I thought the whole show was coming to us. Then it rained for 10 minutes and the storms disappear. lol

 

I think the cluster just couldn't get the cold pool needed to sustain and died out so on a day with plenty of daytime sunshine, temps in the 90s, dew points in the upper 70s, a cold front, and decent upper air support nothing happened even though it should have been Armageddon. lol

 

So we ended up at my cities lake which is typically a good place to get some pictures because one side of the lake is pretty high up and the other is relatively low elevation. This makes seeing rain bases easily.

 

Pretty soon the gf is off snapping pictures as I'm watching today's chase fizzle on radar. She managed to get some pictures of

 

a cat

IMG_1038.jpg

 

fog

IMG_1052.jpg

 

a blurry cardinal

IMG_1051.jpg

 

a rainbow

IMG_1041.jpg

 

the blue sky

IMG_1050.jpg

 

and a sunset.

IMG_1055.jpg

 

To which she said "well atleast we got a nice sunset" to which I replied "they don't call it sunset chasing." lol

 

Yep today was a bust.

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StormChaser

StormChaser

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Awe, definitely not "sunset chasing" but still a fun day out! Since you are sharing...I will share more! :)

 

Yukon Territory ...During my drive from Alaska to Virginia

IMG_1348.jpg

 

My Bailey (RIP) looking at Buffalo

IMG_1535.jpg

 

LOVE this road sign!!

IMG_1703.jpg

 

Sunset in Alaska

IMG_0103.jpg

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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I love seeing pictures of that stuff post away! That sheep sign is hilarious and that buffalo is close!!!

 

Alaska is one place I have to go before I die.

 

I only get to chase a few times a year and I haven't had a good digital camera until this year so my pictures are limited but here are a few.

 

This thing came through blowing about 70mph and dropped 2 inches in an hour.

062709_203000.jpg

 

IMG_0475.jpg

 

great shelf cloud in northern Iowa

IMG_0625.jpg

 

IMG_0571.jpg

 

IMG_0402.jpg

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