05/07/2011 Edgar County Tor. Warned HP Supercell

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I was at a loss for words because of how beautiful this beast was! There was a strange disturbance, which brought along lots of bulk shear, I believe almost past 50kts in some spots, which you can see quite well in the structure here in these images. I witnessed some of the best structure over here in East central IL! Finally scored a real storm, for once! I had an easy drive, I got on IL-16E and headed East, towards Kansas over in Edgar county. After passing a gas station in that town, I got onto IL-49N, traveled North a few miles, and couldn't really find a good spot to stop so I said the hell with it, and stopped far off on the shoulder. The road wasn't all that busy, so I thought it wouldn't do any harm stopping there. At that point, I jumped out the driver's seat, ran out into the field and took a whopping amount of exposures: some of my favorite images yet. The time I got into Kansas was 7:20pm approximately. The storm got its act together for about 10 minutes or so, then died out, once it got over a cooler air mass. There was a tightening up area of circulation, which didn't last all that long. Even if there were recent touchdowns earlier in the day, I could care less...my structure day has been accomplished!

05/06/2011 Optical Encounter

Sun pillar, 22 degree sun halo, crepuscular rays, sun dog/parhelia...yup pretty sweet stuff. Not as good as what you might catch during the winter months, but I am always up for an awesome atmospheric optic op!

04/29/2011 Highway Sun Halo

My apologies for the bad lighting and overexposed sun in these images. Getting some things done before my senior prom, we went to town and along the highway about halfway to where we needed to be - sun halo! Partial spots at times stood out more than others, the inner red and outer blue ring(s) were quite visible. As a heavier cloud deck was about to pass, the halo went away. Oh warm fronts, I love you all.

04/16/2011 Moon Iridescence/Corona

I absolutely love atmospheric optics and learning about these awesome phenomenon. I caught a couple longer exposures around midnight (I believe?) on the camera, then processed them in an instant, and here they are lol. Coronas tend to form when light diffraction occurs around the sun/moon due to water droplets and all sorts of stuff. I remember coronas by knowing they consist of water droplets, and larger particles of something, like fog, or dust (but coronas like that form from low levels other than the atmosphere up above in the sky.) The bigger mass of the water particle or whatever causes the corona. Also, an aureole, which is made up of a beautifully colored fat-like set of rings which surround the sun or moon, is what makes the corona's great appearance. If you let the shutter run for a longer amount of time at night, watch out and make sure the moon isn't overexposing too much, otherwise you will get a very bright, washed out looking corona.

04/01/2011 April Foolin' on Mother Nature

Wow is all I can say regarding this day. 2011 has actually been a great start for me involving photography. It seems like *not going to jinx myself here* I've ran into the moments all at the right time...so far lol. April Fool's day this year was perfect. Absolutely gorgeous rain showers turned into epic back-lit madness, then quickly they became small thunderstorms. They produced a small amount of lightning, pushing eastward during pre-dusk. The lighting became magnificent - even scary at some points. What looked like a mock "RFD" or rear flank of this small storm cluster, they had quite the coloration and low, ragged structure. All in all, they were harmless rain showers! :) The added rainbow and clouds were sure a sight, too. In the end of my awesome photography outing, there was an amazing twilight following all the action including some lightning. Score.