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There’s a reason photographers like to shoot at the beach. It has a magic all its own. The morning (and evening) light is lovely, and there’s something about the waves that makes people relax.

I just shot photos at the beach in Cape Canaveral of my sister-in-law and her adorable kids. While the children’s attention span was short for posed shots, they were so sweet playing in the ocean, one couldn’t help but get some nice photos.

Ah, luminous youth! See the photos here.

I posted a gallery from this year’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, featuring a smattering of photos from various events.

For some of my cocktail photos from this trip, I used a little LED video light to add drama and translucence to the drink. It drastically changed the look of some cocktails, which might seem pale yellow or green in natural light, and then suddenly spooky and gemlike with the spotlight. This is an example from the Bombay Sapphire gin luncheon at restaurant August.

I love taking photos of cocktails with a macro lens – for many of those close-up food and drink pix, I’m using a 105mm Nikkor. It’s one of my favorite lenses; I love the sharpness, the low depth of field and the way it brings out details, like the coriander in this pretty cocktail (below) from the Pama Popstars and Bubbles Brunch.

People’s reaction to this drink, dubbed the Captain & Tennille, was interesting; two of my friends, both with sophisticated palates, were turned off by the herbs. This may have to do with the flavor debate centered around cilantro (which is the same as coriander, before it grows flowers and leaves). I once had a friend who hated cilantro so much, he wouldn’t get near parsley, either, because it reminded him of the former. Cilantro/coriander tastes soapy to some people, perhaps because of a genetically inherited palate.

There’s always the possibility that a perfectly prepared drink or dish will turn off someone just because of the way her tongue is configured. But I loved this cocktail’s complexity, and apparently, I’m perfectly happy with coriander. The herbal flavor helped undercut the drink’s fruit-and-champagne sweetness.

Here’s the recipe for the cocktail, so you can taste for yourself:

CAPTAIN & TENNILLE

1 slice fresh ginger
10 coriander leaves
1 1/2 ounces Absolut Citron
1/2 ounce PAMA
1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
1 ounce fresh apple juice
champagne

Muddle ginger and coriander leaves in the base of a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients and shake well over ice. Add champagne. Rock gently. Fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a coriander flower.

At some point when you’re trying to outrun an outflow boundary – what was a pretty shelf cloud, during the brief glimpse I had of it – you run out of road. At least around here. My pursuit ended at the Atlantic Ocean in Cocoa Beach, but I got shots of the shelf as it pushed out over the sea this evening. The colors were so silver and blue, almost monochromatic, that I converted the image to black and white so the textures would come out.

While you need a storm to shoot lightning, one of the obvious side effects of a storm, the rain, is a real hindrance to lightning photography. And when the severe storms came to the Space Coast tonight …

… they had a fair amount of lightning, but it was all embedded in precip. In other words, a mess. So after the evening’s social obligations, I attempted to get a little shelter under a pavilion in Cocoa Village to catch a few lightning crawlers. Still, the rain was spitting on my lens, and the one awesome crawler happened to fire in the split second between exposures. Ack! Anyway, here’s one, despite everything.

Had a fun evening last night seeing surf-rock legend Dick Dale and trio at the Boathouse in Winter Park, a beautiful bar and a nice, intimate space, big enough for a small crowd and perfect to get a close-up view, as well as a real ear-blasting. I’m so glad I got to see (and hear) Dick Dale! I interviewed him a few years ago by phone, and it was a great conversation.

May 30 was a great last chase for my Tornado Alley season this year, but maybe that’s because I’m one of those chasers, or storm photographers, or nature lovers who doesn’t need a tornado to feel like I’ve had a good day. Besides, it seems like everyone else is on the road these days shooting tornado video, with security cameras and amateurs still getting some of the best stuff, often the result of unwise decisions at the risk of their own lives.

 

 

With several friends, I chased a line of severe storms in Nebraska on May 30 that offered much in the way of photo opportunities, even if they cut off our northern route in a beautiful landscape with almost no roads. What are you gonna do? Every trip is a mix of hits and misses (for instance, four tornadoes, but none on the high risk day), but it’s always educational and frequently fun – when it’s not frustrating. Like anything worthwhile, it takes a lot of work and, in this case, a lot of miles. To be precise: 11,865.

It’s always surreal returning home. Home is Florida, where it’s soupy and hot and summerlike, a big contrast to the breezy and cool spring of the Plains. Our rainy season hasn’t kicked in yet, so we’re not getting much in the way of thunderstorms. The dull drum of domesticity is met by the pleasure of being home. I’m watering the tomatoes, petting the dogs and catching up on sleep. I’m trying to find my rhythm as I get into a new career of self-employment. And I’m hoping for more adventure.

I want to thank all the great chasers I caravaned with or otherwise hung out with on the road this year, among them “Dr. Wedge,” William “Bill” Hark; the storm chasing doctors Jason Persoff and Robert Balogh, who acted as first responders twice, including after the devastating Joplin, Mo., tornado; New Yawkers Dave Lewison and Scott McPartland; Mark Robinson and his team of Canadian “Storm Hunters,” Brad Rousseau and Dayna Vettese, Heather Reynolds and Meghan Yeo; Australian videographer Daniel Shaw; the crazy guys of Cloud 9 Tours; and Bill Reid and the Tempest Tours folks.

As for that lurker who followed Bill H. and I one day, what the hell was he thinking? Storm chasing isn’t like what you see on TV. It’s no Disney ride. It would be a lot simpler if it were.

What does one do while driving thousands of miles and, as has happened the last two days, busting on storm chases? Take a few pictures. I wish I’d taken more, but so much time is consumed by actually getting from one place to another. The freakin’ distances out here are massive.

The potent tornado machine is slowly moving east, losing a little of its punch, though my friends in Pennsylvania should watch the weather today. Florida might get storms, too. I hope we get rain at home to keep the plants happy!

I chose not to chase in the hills and trees yesterday and instead repositioned north and west. I plan to go into Colorado to see what storms I can catch today. I’m looking for a little of that upslope magic.

I’m slowly catching up on my chase reports. [Note: This part of the old SkyDiary website is gone now.] The latest addition is the day of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado, which I did not chase, instead choosing to go after a promising area in southern Oklahoma. Again, it meant fewer hills and trees, and that’s a factor in the decisions that chasers make sometimes. Visibility is important. That day I also saw the TIV and the Dominator on the road, which you may have seen in Discovery’s “Storm Chasers” show. I saw storms that day and, of all things, a couple of tarantulas!

I’m almost caught up on storm-chasing photos (after staying up half the night again). I saw severe storms Sunday, but not much to write home about, though I will post a few photos eventually. I was saddened to hear of the devastation in Joplin, Missouri. Some of my chaser friends were on the scene and helped victims of the tornado.

In the meantime, I have posted photos of the beautiful Kansas storms of May 20 and photos of the southeast Oklahoma tornadoes of May 21.

[Note: the old galleries at SkyDiary.com are gone, but here are a few photos from those pages.]

 

May 20, 2011: I had a glorious chase in southern Kansas today, as minor storms firing off the dryline offered lovely photo opportunities as they gained strength. I started with a big group of friends, but the company soon narrowed to Jason Persoff and Robert Balogh as we split in different directions around the storms. We kept going after the southern storms forming on the line, all in the vicinity of Pratt, Kansas.

 

May 21, 2011: I targeted Ardmore in southern Oklahoma today as a starting point, due to a potentially favorable spin in the atmosphere and huge instability, among other things. When I got there after driving from Wichita, I couldn’t help driving just a bit farther to Marietta, just north of the Texas border. (Also, I left the Ardmore truck stop because a skunk was wandering around, and I’d almost stepped on it when I attempted to get out of my car.) I was anxious over an already-reported tornado on the ground in Texas, but like everything in Texas, it was really far away. I chose to remain in my target area, watching cloud towers push up and break apart – until one started to look as if it meant it. It had crisp, billowing convection and began to cut a gorgeous shape in the sky. When I got up close enough to see the base, rotation was evident. At first, it had a multi-vortex appearance and produced a couple of needle funnels in this mode. Later, it put down short-lived tornadoes. And much later, as this storm died, another to its north produced a tornado just outside Ada, Oklahoma. I got to it just in time.

 

It’s about 4 a.m. CDT, and I’m making this post fast, so I can get to sleep. I had a glorious chase in southwest Kansas today (May 20 is still today for me, at the moment), as minor storms firing off the dryline offered lovely photo opportunities as they gained strength. I started with a big group of friends, but the company soon narrowed to Jason Persoff and Robert Balogh as we split in different directions around the storms. We kept going after the southern storms forming on the line, all in the vicinity of Pratt, Kansas. Here is just one shot; I have a lot more to post, but time ran out tonight after trouble on the road.

Just 10 miles west of Wichita late at night on the way into town and to our hotel rooms, Jason hit a deer. Or maybe we should say the deer hit Jason. Either way, Jason was OK, but the deer and the rental car were both in bad shape. Many phone calls, the kind attention of a wonderful police officer, and a tow truck later, and all Jason’s stuff was in Robert’s and my vehicles, and we were able to get under way again. We got in about 2 a.m., and it’s taken me forever to get all the photos off my cards. I just don’t have time to process them all tonight before lapsing into unconsciousness, so … more later!