Storms from the air
Oh I’m on vacation, need a nap, don’t want to be on the computer too much, but I took a couple of shots of some severe weather in the midwest as we twisted and turned in the air to avoid all of it. No matter what I see on the ground…there is something so majestic about flying close to a towering thunderstorm. It’s hard to compete with that. If someone gave me the power to fly, I think that would be the first thing I’d do. Find me a storm and fly alongside it. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
The Dark Tower
(click the image to view full size for your resolution, or if you have a humongous monitor, see it larger!) Ah yes…rain in Phoenix. It’s always awesome. I can be completely “blah” about photography for whatever reason…long days at work, tiredness, blue skies, no motivation, you name it. But rain arrives, stormy skies ensue and suddenly nothing can stop me from getting out and exploring the world. If you’ve followed me for long, you may have seen a shot or two of Chase Tower in downtown Phoenix. I didn’t go down there last night with the intention of shooting it [...]
Forrest Gump
(Click to see the spooky house larger in all its spookiness. Looks better with a nice, dark border) For any new readers, it’s Movie Title Wednesday on my blog, where I try to link a photograph I take to a movie I’ve seen…and enjoyed. Definitely up there in my Top 10 All-Time Movie list is Forrest Gump. Heck, it’s impact on our culture was big enough to warrant an actual sign on the highway that Forrest Gump “ran” on during the movie (see Kristi’s photo). It was a movie where I felt like I kind of sat there with my [...]
A Kansas sunset
(Click on the image for a larger-than-normal view…also makes the wheat field a bit more visible) There was something special about this sunset. I don’t know what it was, but when I was crouching down in front of this wheat field, I was in awe. Here I was, in western Kansas, in a place I’d never been before, in the middle of nowhere, not a sound but chirping birds, not a car to be seen…witnessing something beautiful. The irony is that this was our last gasp for a storm on Wednesday before it was time for me to go. My [...]
A lamp post in Winslow, Arizona
(Click to view larger or fit to your screen depending on your resolution) This is set to be a crazy week for me. In Vegas for work until Wednesday night, then we’re off to Memphis for a family vacation on Thursday. Lots of plane rides, driving…but I can’t wait to see the rest of our fam in Tennessee. And who knows…maybe the failure to find storms last week will someone materialize while I’m in Memphis right? This is another photograph from our trip up north to Two Guns/Grand Falls back on April 2nd. The clouds were just stupendous that day [...]
An old Kansas grain silo
(Click to see a bit larger with a nice dark border) When you go on a three-day stormchasing trip, you tend to get focused on one thing: storms. I think that’s obvious enough. You usually have a ton of driving to do on an excursion like this so there isn’t always a lot of time to spend dilly-dallying as my mom would say. The fact that this isn’t a storm photo should tell you something. The three-day trip was kind of a huge bust for me. The storms just didn’t happen like they were supposed to and I’m having a [...]
The Town
(A much better view can be had by clicking to see with a black border and slightly larger!) This is probably the first time that a Movie Title Wednesday film has been something so recent. That could mainly be due to the fact I don’t SEE as many movies as I used to what with a kid and all. Before Lyla, my wife and I would tend to see around 1-2 movies a month, always on Saturday mornings with the elderly folks at the earliest possible showing. It’s less crowded, more quiet and then we could always come back home [...]
Hanging sunset
(click…to…see…larger…and…stuff) Sometimes there are clouds and sometimes there are CLOUDS. This doesn’t even compare to the monster storm clouds I’d love to be photographing in the midwest right now, but as far as sunsets go in Arizona, this was one of my favorites. You may remember a few shots already taken on this day: The “Seventh Heaven” reflection and the one of Chase Field called “Fever Pitch“. With my wife and daughter looking on in the chilly, windy weather, I was running around like a psycho trying to capture the clouds anyway I could. Not exactly my favorite composition in [...]
The winding road
(clickity click on the image for a biggity big version) I know, a road shot right? This is yet another shot from my trip to Nelson/El Dorado Canyon southeast of Las Vegas back in mid-March. The clouds, the light, the winding road…were almost too much fro me to handle. I saw too many shots I loved and had to reel myself in thinking “Do you really need 25 more road shots Mike??” My real, unabashed answer to that from deep inside me is YES…but in reality, certain road shots are special, most aren’t and you gotta know when it’s worth [...]
Ripples
(click to see larger and a bit better…Wordpress re-sizing makes this one a tad too dark in places) The image I posted yesterday evoked some awesome comments from you guys about what might be wrong with the composition of the scene. It came down to the foreground element. And over the course of the comments, it became clear that the foreground in a landscape photo can make it or break it. I wanted to thank you all for your input. I honestly wasn’t able to put a finger on it until your thoughts helped me realize I was thinking the [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.