My biggest fear while at Olympics was missing the bulk of the summer monsoon storms that sweep across Arizona. Even though sports and racing is what pays my bills, I am obsessed with storm chasing! Luckily for me I didn’t miss many storms while I was gone. Now that I am home I was sure to plan a few days off into my schedule to allowed me to start catching up on my storm shooting. Today would be one of those days.
.My last couple days in London I told myself multiple times how I couldn’t wait to get home and not have to pick up a camera for several days. Just two days after getting home I would take a fishing trip with a buddy… and I would be happily picking up a camera and working my ass off!
.D800, 24-70mm, 400iso, f5.6, 1/2500th, Aperture Priority
After months of traveling to the Olympics in the back of my mind, the day finally came to board the plane to London for my second summer Olympics.
.Here is a new category for my Best Of galleries. While everyone seems to know me only as a sports photographer I like to shoot pretty pics once in awhile as well. So here are some of my favorite scenery pics of 2011. Enjoy!
.Ever since I moved to a high rise in downtown Phoenix I have anxiously been awaiting the arrival of the summer monsoon season. The hardest part about shooting lightning storms is getting to a good elevation to see above the surrounding areas. The 23rd floor would certainly offer a killer vantage point once the storm season began.
.Literally hours after I posted my last storm chasing blog I saw some good radar activity on my iPad while sitting at Chilis watching some racing and hauled ass out to the desert to see what I could get. While this monsoon season has been rather tame, little did I know at the time but this one night would make my entire monsoon season a good one!
.Most people associate Arizona with hot temperatures and dry deserts. However, late in the summer the monsoon season arrives and produces big storms that pound the area with rain, dust storms and lightning. Anytime I am in town and not working you can be sure that I am keeping a watchful eye on the local radars in hopes of some storms so I can go storm chasing.
.I had planned on spending the weekend in San Diego shooting drag boat racing on Mission Bay with Jennifer and some friends but as things tend to go in my crazy life as a sports photographer, the original plan took a back seat to a last second shoot. That last second shoot was a college football game in Utah. Initially I wasn’t very excited about the change of plans but once I found out the game had a late afternoon start with the chances of great light I somewhat warmed up to the idea.
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