Stormy Weather

Click the pic for a bigger view 

Stormy weather ahead at the Painted Desert indeed. Two of my favorite things come together for this shot in north eastern Arizona, an open highway and a monsoon storm.

Stormy Weather On the Horizon

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to head north for some storm chasing at the Painted Desert. This was new territory for me and it turned out to be a pretty great chase day.

Fellow chasers Bryan Snider and Scott Wood accompanied me for this awesome day of storm chasing as we made our way north of Winslow. The high desert of north eastern Arizona was a welcomed change from the typical desert chasing we do around Tucson and Phoenix. I enjoyed the wide open space and ability to see for miles. Getting to see a storm build and develop without any obstruction was absolutely amazing.

As we packed up from the Painted Desert and headed back south we spotted the storm you see above. Stormy weather coming right at us! We pulled over and started photographing this gem. Scott and Bryan both had bigger telephoto lenses with them (decided to leave mine at home, grrr) and were able to really zoom in on some great lightning that was coming out of this system.  I opted for a few wide angle shots and couldn’t pass up a signature road shot.

I don’t normally have spotters with me when I get a road shot so I actually got to enjoy shooting this image sitting in the middle of the highway. 🙂  Most of the time I am alone and have to run out quickly to get a road shot. Having a healthy amount of fear while standing in the middle of a highway goes a long way to keeping one alive. Your tip for the day.

We capped off this trip with a few lightning shots just south of Flagstaff. I have a few of those still to process so stay tuned for an upcoming post with those.

Until next time…