Aurora, Chasing, and More!

Hello everyone!

WOW it has been a marathon 3 day stretch for me. Starting Tuesday night with an unexpected and amazing display of the Northern Lights! This lasted for about 4 hours and I headed to a wind farm near my house here in Northeast Nebraska to time lapse the display. I am sure I will have some still images coming from this one... until I get those processed, here is a time lapse of the display. 3 hours compressed into about 30 seconds!



Then on Wednesday and Thursday the parameters came together for some nice storms in Kansas, Southern Nebraska, and Northwestern Missouri. Needless to say after 3 days, 5 states, 1100 miles, 4 supercells, an aurora display, 8 hours of sleep total and ~30 hours in the car I am a little worn out but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Here is a preview from the first chase day near Dunlap, Kansas as the storm organized into a supercell.



Much more to come... I will probably make a post here better detailing the storm chases. Let me know what you think!

Thanks,

Chris

Badlands National Park- Quick Preview

Hey guys!

I just got back from Badlands National Park for a second time... this time focusing on documenting that place in the daytime. I am convinced I could spend a month out there and not get it all but I did the best I could with the time I had! I plan to write a blog soon detailing the experiences and some of the frames I made while I was out there. Until then I figured you would like to see a quick preview from out there. I stitched a couple of panoramas that were taken at sunset the first night we spend out there. The original files are both over 19000 pixels wide and almost 60 MB. Making some absolutely huge prints possible.

The first image is from the 'White River Valley Overlook' along the Rim Road in the middle of the park. This is one of my favorite places in the park... because it doesn't look very incredible initially with the parking lot being a little bit down hill from the peak. However a quick walk from the parking lot and walking out onto one of the narrow ridges puts you on a ledge surrounded by massive drops into deep gorges and towering rock formations all around you. I wish we had spend more time here... but for now this panorama image will have to do.



The second image is from aptly named 'Panorama Point' which is near the eastern part of the park before you decend into Dillon Pass and the visitor center. Here a narrow boardwalk takes you from the roadside onto an overlook surrounded on 3 sides by the stirated colors of the Badlands Wall. This is one of my favorite images from the trip! Direct sun light on the rocks to my east really allow you to see the colors and bands in the rocks, golden grasses lit up in the sunset give it some color. The grass in the foreground along the ridge we are standing on gives this some scale and depth too. You can also see the bottom of the deep, shaded canyon on the right hand side of the image which leads into distant rolling plains.



Anyway expect alot more to be coming from these trips soon both on my website and blog. Feel free to let me know what your thoughts are on these panoramic images!

Thanks,

Chris