Contact: You have to type in the below e-mail as it's not clickable.
Short bio:
I'm basically just a storm chaser that got into photography because video captures weren't doing things justice. I started chasing in 1999, but had always watched storms around town. I usually drive around 20,000 miles a year just chasing storms, from Texas to North Dakota, Colorado to Indiana. Though more and more I'm satisfied with South Dakota to Oklahoma, Colorado to Iowa.
I've always shot with Canon Digital Rebel SLRs, except for briefly having a Canon 5D II DSLR. Not a massive need for anything beyond a Rebel for shooting storms. I have a 10-22 EF-s, a 50mm 1.8, and a 100-400L and that is it for lenses. I shoot strictly in RAW. I guess I started with a Sony F707 in 2002, then went through about all the rebels.
Second to a love of storms, is a love of all other things weather. I love witnessing rare weather and sky scenes, such as atmospheric optics, fog displays from above, ice-storms, blizzards, and even massive geese migrations, topping 1 million in one location.
In 2004 this became my soul income, not on purpose. In early 2011 it remains so, though highly doubtful for much longer.
A bit about animals:
I'm a huge animal lover. All life really. I am truly bothered by how animals are treated and wish I could somehow change things. Example. A dog on a chain is just flat out wrong. If it were up to me this would be illegal. So easy for me to see how wrong it is. It boggles my mind someone can do this to their pet. Accepted things aren't always right. It's a LIFE on a chain, no other way about it. One night after a chase I saw this little dog in a backyard on a chain, sitting there all by itself in the world, looking towards this house. I hoped it was just out there for the time it takes to go potty and that that wasn't the norm of its life. I really sort of doubted that was the case. I just see this LIFE just like mine and yours with all this curiosity stuck to that pole for its little eternity. What was its point in being created if that is its life? Fed and ignored perhaps, we know this happens out there. I want to run around and cut chains when I see it's not just out going potty. Sucks there have to be pets as is, least one could do is make that animal's life as free as they possibly can. And a chain....well.....truly horrible if you stop and look at it and think. I can see a few of your faces as you read this. Probably saying, "what a wuss". Ah well. Thinking is not the hardest thing to do. We all see the same thing(s). Wish we all could have a bit more compassion even if it means "going out of our way". Accepted things aren't always right. Take a second and look again. Open up your mind to what it is you are seeing, not the fact you are used to seeing it. Here is one way to look at it. Say 10 years is the average life span of a dog. Now think back 10 years and how long ago that was. Imagine all of the things that have happened in your life and instead of those times being free to you to do what you wanted, put your neck in a chain and strap it to a tree or pole for that whole time...long boring day after long boring day...years worth of them. And it really isn't about just pole and chain, but even just being ignored and left isolated. It is not hard to do a few things to make a LIFE better.
By the way, I don't hate people who have things this way with their dog. I only wish it could bug them like it does me now. It never used to bug me, but somewhere along the way, I noticed enough to be bothered. Hell I feel sorry the 2 cats I "rescued" have to be locked up in my apartment now and can no longer be free(yeah, being free has its own issues too). I obviously don't have any answers to "what else to do with them", but I only hope some can at least notice enough, then care enough, to do what they can. I feel bad for my parent's bored indoor dogs, so I go and take them for walks pretty much every single day, even when I don't want to get up and go anywhere. If I had a dog on a chain, or in a tiny fence, the first thing on my to do list would be build a bigger fence, if there was just no way to let it inside. I just see far too many sad cases where surely the owner could do better. I'm all over the plains, and anymore, I really fear glancing over to back or front yards, for what I'll probably be seeing, again and again.
Links
I try to only add chaser links. If your link dissapeared it's likely when I updated/checked links there was nothing there/it wasn't working. If you don't already have your own links section I may or may not add you.
Force of Nature Photography.com
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