While I have many projects in the works – producing videos, writing a novel, helping a client publish a book – I’ve been shooting tons of photos recently. The subjects have ranged from a pinup to a sugar artist to a newspaper preview of Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival. But as always, I’m drawn to nature, especially weather. And when the weather doesn’t cooperate – I’m still waiting for a great nighttime lightning storm here – there are sea turtles!

I recently accompanied storm chaser Peggy Willenberg and her friends, experts on turtles, as they roamed the east central Florida beaches one evening looking for nesting sea turtles. Our target was the Floridana Beach area, north of Sebastian, a popular area for turtles. We saw perhaps ten that night, under the full moon – at least when it stopped raining. We went out in a light rain just after dark. White light and flash photography should not be used when observing turtles, so all of these photos were taken in almost complete darkness with only the help of the full moon. The shoot was incredibly challenging. A red light is OK, and one of my friends had one, but it was rarely used. So focusing was almost impossible. (Next time, I’ll bring a red light to assist with focus.) We saw a couple of turtles early in our search, and then, after a lull, saw several more until we stopped about 1:30 a.m.

There was something magical and primal about these beautiful creatures emerging from the ocean to do what they’ve done for thousands of years, and I did my best to capture the experience. See more photos below.

Note: This post has been updated with the gallery that originally appeared on SkyDiary.com.

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.

It was a beautiful evening, with the full moon rising over the ocean and storms heading out to sea.  I set up the camera to shoot automatically while chatting with friends at one of their oceanfront condos (man, I’d love to have that perch for photography all the time!).  The bad thing about that is, when the rain started spitting again, I wasn’t there to wipe off the lens. So while I got a handful of cool shots with lightning, the ones with raindrops were pretty much unlovable. I did my best to repair them, but after a while, they start to look like Impressionist paintings. (Maybe that’s not all bad.)

All that said, the photo above was taken after I’d wiped off the lens. The contrast wasn’t high, as the bolt lit up the cloud/precipitation in the air, and the ocean was pretty dark, but I like the subtlety. Also, I wanted to post it here because the social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter, always make photos with this kind of subtle light look like crap. I realize the services are compressing them, but it still makes me a bit frustrated.

Want to see more storm photos from this year, including tornadoes? Check out the storm reports – as always, a work in progress.

 
I chased storms on my own May 29, 2015, targeting east-central New Mexico, hoping for an isolated storm.

Instead, there were many storms growing and dying in rapid succession, but it was still a great photography day, with wildflowers, storm structure, mammatus and a wonderful sunset.

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On May 27, 2015, I chased with Brad and Dayna Rousseau, Matt Grinter, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland and Stephen Barabas. We targeted the northeast Texas Panhandle. In my mind, the town of Canadian seemed like a good target.

Incredibly, the storms not only went up there, but one tornado-producing storm there barely moved all day. At one point we just set up and watched it spin out one funnel after another.

But the main show was the large tornado, which we all filmed from different angles. I watched it from the highway bridge over the river, filming the tornado as it churned beyond the wagon bridge that had always captivated my imagination in spite of its sometimes gloomy history. Unfortunately, the twister reportedly caused injuries.

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While my friends chased in Texas on May 25, I opted to see if I could find something more isolated in Kansas. Storms were just popping as I reached south-central Kansas.

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On May 22, happy to be back on the road, I chased with Brad and Dayna Rousseau, Matt Grinter, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland and Stephen Barabas.

We targeted the upslope of eastern Colorado and were rewarded with photogenic storms. The double rainbow over the wheat field was particularly rapturous.

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On May 23, I chased with Brad and Dayna Rousseau, Matt Grinter, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland and Stephen Barabas. We targeted southeast Colorado and ended up at La Junta on a tornado-warned storm.

The storm moved north of La Junta but did not seem intent on producing a tornado, despite a report about this time (2 p.m. mountain time). It developed the telltale “greenage” color that usually indicates hail. We ended up with scenes of desolate beauty.

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After a difficult couple of days dealing with car issues after hitting a deer, I got a rental and did a mini-chase in Nebraska between McCook and Holbrook on May 16. I waited for middling storms to make their way to me, and they formed a beautiful if short-lived layered shelf cloud.

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On May 15, I chased with Mark Robinson, Jaclyn Whittal, Michel Millaire, Matt Grinter, Brad and Dayna Rousseau, Dave Lewison, Scott McPartland and Stephen Barabas. We began the chase on storms in southwest Nebraska, just north of the Colorado line.

While I got some beautiful lightning and enjoyed the chase, the trip “home” to the hotel ended in disaster when I hit a deer in the Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska. It’s a long story, but after the nightmare of dealing with AAA (who eventually lost my car – yeah, I found it again), the police and the crazy scene, I got to a hotel in the wee hours with the help of friends (special thanks to Dan Shaw and Greg Ansel), and my car went into a shop the next day in North Platte. After we found it. Seriously, it’s a long story.

To top things off, I had a horrible cold and spent the weekend worried my car would be totaled. It wasn’t, but it had to be held hostage for repairs. A rental car got me back on the road.

That said, the pictures are nice. Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.

I chased with Canadian friends May 13 in Texas, and we caught a beautiful tornado at Guthrie. It was a rarity these days – because we were the only storm chasers on it.

I chased with Mark Robinson, Jaclyn Whittal, Michel Millaire, Matt Grinter and Brad and Dayna Rousseau. We targeted the Lubbock area and ended up moving a little east to intercept a small line of storms. The southern one surprised us by producing a classic tornado despite a relatively weak storm that was nothing special on radar.

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.