With very little likelihood of any severe weather in the forecast we decided to follow what might turn into some interesting weather later in the day. Our adventure took us through three states…Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado covering 550 miles. We did find some great subjects to aim our cameras at.

By late afternoon clouds began to form against the darker blue sky as they floated past a Colorado farm.

As the clouds continued to build we found a picturesque old building to place in the foreground.

There’s nothing quite so beautiful as a dramatic sky. This one screamed B&W when I reviewed it in the digital darkroom

Still in a B&W mood we moved on to find a wind farm that went for miles. What a great subject for a stormy day…the windmills powered by the winds of the approaching storm.

There were scattered thunder showers throughout the afternoon and evening followed by a downpour as we made our way to our hotel for the night. While we did not get our tube, we had a great day with some outstanding skies.

Images captured with Nikon D700, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar digital media

Today began our great adventure in Tornado Alley chasing storms. We began in Oklahoma City with an orientation. There was not much in the way of storm activity today so we looked ahead at the two and three day forecasts to determine where we should position ourselves for weather for the next few days. Once we had our plan we were off with our very knowledgeable and capable guides Brian & Chris.

When we arrived in Hays, KS; our stop for the night the sun was getting low in the horizon so we headed out to find something interesting to photograph. We came across an old homestead, one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) that dot the Kansas landscape. I had black & white in mind when I photographed this old outbuilding with the windmill.

Looking through the window of the homestead, the range of light was too great to capture in one click so, I braced myself against the window and did a 5 stop bracket with HDR in mind.

As the sun dropped below the horizon we headed to dinner.

Today was a pretty light positioning day with only 360 miles of travel.

Images captures with Nikon D700, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar digital media.

Today as I reflect on how grateful to have such a wonderful mother, I felt that simply telling her was not enough. You see my mom is the best mom in the world. No matter the situation, she was (and is) always right there by my side telling me that I can do anything I set my mind to. She believes unfailingly in me and my abilities. She is there to share in the good times and she steps up to comfort me in the bad. My mother unselfishly does for others…she may bake all day long to send a care package of goodies for no reason than to let you know that she is thinking of you. She listens when I have something to talk out and offers sound advice with no hint of judgement. My mom is generous, kind, selfless, caring, the most beautiful mom in the world.
I can only hope to posses a fraction of your qualities, mom. I love you!

DLWS Outer Banks is over and the good times are now just a memory. The shoots were excellent, the group was great in their enthusiasm to be out and ready to go as early as 4:30am and stuck with us until well after 11:00pm each night. I did not blog regularly as I decided that I needed the few precious hours of sleep more. Here are the images from the rest of the week rolled into one…

We were rained out (only the second time that has happened in DLWS history) on Monday night. Now, normally we don’t let a little bit of rain stop us but there were severe thunder storms and a threat of tornados in the area so we decided that hanging out on the sand dunes was not a good idea. With 30+ people huddled into the only shelter we could find Joe worked his magic doing a lighting demonstration with our newest DLWS addition, Stephanie Cross.

Tuesday morning found us at the Manchese boat docks where we had the opportunity to photograph both working boats…

and the tired bones of those that were no longer seaworthy…

I found some really cool reflections and worked them for a bit…

We headed to Coquina Beach for sunset where I worked the sand fences that line the dunes.

Wednesday was lighthouse day with a visit to Cape Hatteras Light for sunrise where we found beautiful light and just the right amount of clouds to make an interesting image.

We wrapped up with our last shoot at Bodie Lighthouse capturing the last light of day creeping into twilight…

You may have noticed that the images posted in this blog have Photo Frames. I wanted to pass on a great value from my friends over at OnOne Software. They are the folks that bring you PhotoFrame 4.0, Genuine Fractals 6.0, Mask Pro 4.1, in addition to their new software Photo Tools 2 and Photo Tune 2. You see my friends at OnOne have offered a discount to my blog readers who purchase their software. Simply log onto the OnOne Software website and enter EQLADY in the promo code when checking out to save 10% off your purchase.

Images captured with Nikon D3X, AF-S 70-300mm VR (top three images), AF-S 14-24mm (beach image), AF-S 24-70mm (lighthouses) on Lexar Digital Media

We kicked off DLWS Outer Banks with a trip to the Currituck Lighthouse. The lighthouses that I have photographed in the past have all been closer to the water…either on the beach or a rocky cliff. This lighthouse is tucked in a forest so photographing the classic lighthouse shot was out. That’s ok because it gave us a new challenge. With the sun rising and some nice cloud patterns, I let the lighthouse & trees go to silhouette exposing for the sky.

Be sure to check out Moose, Joe & Kevin’s blogs this week to see more of our great adventure.

Image captured with Nikon D3X, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar Digital Media.