Experiences

I've been blessed in my life to be able to have so many different kinds of experiences. Being a jack-of-all-trades but king of none, I've found myself in many places, doing many different things. I'm far from an adventurer, but I've done some cool things. Photography, as well as my internship, has really helped me with this. I've already told you some of the story of how I came into photography but havn't really talked about where it has taken me.

Firstly, it took me closer to my passion of storms, allowing me to enjoy a chase and capture its gradeur and keep the memories forever. It was awesome to be able to take my brother on his first storm chase and I look forward to taking several friends on their first chases in the future.

Another awesome thing thats happened due to my photography has been my enterance into the world of photojournalism. One of the big assignments I was able to cover, though my coverage not as in depth as some of my friends, was the 2008 Presidential campaign. UNC saw alot more attention than it normally would since Colorado was a swing state for the election. I first was able to photograph Eva Longoria, Adam Rodriguez and Kal Penn at UNC for an Obama rally.

Shortly thereafter, The future VP, Joe Biden, paid UNC a visit. Butler-Hancock Sports Pavillion was pretty well packed with supporters and it was my first real peek at behind the scenes photojournalism, including some of the ethics behind it (I got yelled at by a friend for clapping at something Biden said. PJs need to stay neutral). I also had a press pass made for me and realized just how powerful they can be...

A press pass can be a very powerful tool. I created one for the newspaper I work for, had my editor sign off on it and used it to get into the Biden rally, where the Obama campaign gave me one of their press passes. Pretty cool for a guy with a camera :)

I was all set-up for the rally in Denver when President Obama came to town. I flashed my Obama press pass and gained full access to all the cool shooting spots for his campaign. I was standing next to the photographers from all the big news outlets, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC. I managed to get some pretty cool pictures, which all look very similar to ones that they took as well...

I have a feeling these may just be the beginning of what could end up being a series of fun rides my cameras and I take. Look for some cool sports pictures coming up the next time I update this...

Backlog

I pretty much always have a camera with me, especially in the summer, with thunderstorms about, but I have not been very good about actually doing anything with my pictures. They just sit in files on my computer, collecting digital dust. So for a while, I'm just going to be posting pictures I've been meaning to do something with, but never have. These are the first few (I'll give little sentences about where they were and what happened to the side of the picture):





This picture was taken in Littleton, looking north. I purchased a Lightning Trigger a while back but have gotten very few opportunities to use it, so when the sun was still an hour from setting and I was already on my commute home from work, I figured I'd pull over and give it a shot. This was the most successful picture of the day.




This summer was a fruitful one for me, as it was for many Colorado chasers. June was the best month I've seen in a long time and this was one of the best storms I was on. This is a storm that passed over La Junta and later, Lamar. The storm had good motion, you could see water vapor condensing on the fringe and being immediately sucked into the main updraft. No tornadoes formed but it was the storm to be at, Vortex 2 and the Discovery Channel crew were both on this storm as well.



This picture, as well as many other good lightning shots, was actually taken just outside of Saratoga, WY. While doing field work in the Medicine Bows and Sierra Madres, an overnight stay in Saratoga was required and luckily, a thunderstorm formed to the east and headed right for us. This 40 second exposure shows just how electric this storm was. I was able to get a dozen good shots before rain forced me to quit for the night.


This shot was taken in a late season thunderstorm, in early September. I went chasing with my girlfriend, Gabrielle, and classmate Lisa. We journeyed a couple miles outside of town to snag some pictures and this is one of the pictures that resulted.


This storm is one of the best, if not THE best documented tornadic thunderstorms of all time. It produced a tornado in La Grange, WY (My first tornado ever, albeit from several miles away), and had some the best rotation and movement I've ever seen. It probably could have produced another tornado except for a CAPE robbing storm popped up to its south. The storm was tracked my the Weather Channel, Vortex 2, Discovery, and many famous chasers, from Chuck Doswell to Greg Thompson. This shot was a lucky snap, trying to get the structure and ended up getting a lightning strike at the same time.





This shot was taken on a solo chase, in May 2008 in eastern Weld County. I was driving to the small town of Keota and wound up in the perfect spot to catch this rainbow.




This photo was taken the same day, same storm as the rainbow photo above. This was taken south of Keota, while the storm was tornado warned. This is the southside of the storm, with scud feeding into the main updraft.





Well, I have an exam coming up soon so I need to go study for it! I'll update later with more backlogged pictures. The shot below is me in front of a storm I chased the day of the Windsor, CO tornado. Thanks for reading!

Intro

Well, hello to anyone reading this. Welcome to a venture I am just starting up, my blog dedicated to my photography. My name is Grant and as I type this, I am a senior in college, getting ready to graduate. I'm a meteorology major and am hoping to enter the field of research meteorology. I'm what we in the community refer to as, a weather (abbr. WX) weenie. I'm absolutely infatuated with the weather, especially severe weather (be it summer or winter).

Why am I a meteorologist with a photography blog? After my freshman year of college, I took up what would become my favorite hobby, storm chasing. Well, I wanted to document my chases so I started researching cameras. My journey landed me in my local Wolf Camera where I met a fellow amateur storm chaser who helped guide me to a decent camera to record my journeys: an 8MP, Canon Rebel XT. He showed me some little things I might need, like a cable shutter release and a tripod for lightning photos. Well, I had this (in my eyes then) fancy camera, so, why not take a class in digital photography. I enrolled in a class at a local CC and got my brother interested in the class too. (Now we're both avid photogs, but thats a slightly different story). Well, as I took the class, learned the basics of my camera and photography in general, I fell in love with it and it has since become my second favorite hobby. I started out doing only weather photography but have since journeyed into many aspects of photography. I've delved into photojournalism, glamour photography, landscapes, portraiture, and even some wedding photography. (NOTE: one thing you won't find me doing is abstract photography. I hate when someone picks up a camera, takes a random picutre and call it art. It rarely ever works.) Since it is early in the morning and this is simply to get my blog going, I'll end here. I'll post again when I can.