During the late 1800′s through the mid 1900′s Picher, OK was part of the tri-state mining district and was a boom town full of men and their families who worked in mines across the region. The mineral they were after? Lead … and specifically lead for bullets and weapons. The region has long since been in decline but now due to polluted drinking water and lead in everything across the region, Picher is truly a ghost town. Not much remains except a few buildings here and there that are slowly deteriorating. But even in Picher, in the midst of death and decay, beauty still lurks.

There isn’t much left of Main Street USA in Picher. Most of the building have either collapsed or fallen victim to fire. Now that the water and air have been polluted with high concentrations of lead and cadmium, there just isn’t a need for people to live in the area on a daily basis. However, one last section of commercial buildings still exist and are the lasting legacy of what used to be the center and heartbeat of this small town. Soon, they will be gone as well as an unknown fate awaits all abandon buildings.

As I have wandered through the remains of Picher, you think about the people who once lived there. This pic highlights a building that was much more than a place to visit on Sunday mornings, it was a place to gather, meet, and live life out together for those that called Picher home. I often wonder about the prayers that were uttered in this place as various people slowly succumbed to the silent slow killer of lead poisoning that they probably had no idea was afflicting them. Those stories and moments are difficult to comprehend, especially those that involved the children. But again, life was probably ever present here as well … as well as hope in the moment and beyond.

There is still one landmark that looms over the remains of Picher, the town’s water tower. It still stands tall over the old townsite with abandoned buildings all around it while proudly proclaiming the Picher Gorillas which was the high school mascot. Who would have thought that the very water it held may have been the town’s undoing?

There are a number of scattered houses throughout the Picher area though many have either been physically moved or demolished. It is interesting to stop and imagine what stories each place must hold, who lived there, and what happened to them.

In the end, Picher is a symbol of the spectrum that spans life and death. It was a place of vitality in its heyday, but now stands as a reminder that the source of prosperity can also be the unknowing undoing. Yet, even in the midst of death and decay, new life is springing up through the area. And while humanity has largely be evicted, the natural world is laying claim once again to its domain.

As a long-time meteorologist and professor, I have been captured by the beauty and awesome power of thunderstorms and severe weather. While I don’t storm chase as much as I have in the past, I still take a few opportunities each storm season to venture out across the Great Plains of the United States to personally view the fury and beauty that can be unleashed in nature.

A recent, successful venture occurred on March 18, 2012 which included a slight risk of severe weather across western Oklahoma and northwest Texas. I was a passenger along for the ride with Mason Rowell and Doug Crauder. We intercepted a slow moving and slow developing storm near Hollis, OK and watched it evolve from an unorganized conglomerate of individual updrafts into a consolidated, strong, rotating updraft and supercell thunderstorm.

As the storm moved northeast we redeployed east and eventually to a point northwest of the town of Mangum, OK. Along the way I was able to snap a few wide angle shots of the storm which showed amazing overall structure that can be missed if people quickly drive underneath the storm to get up close and personal with a tornado. However, personally, I find the structure of the whole storm to be just as amazing as the tornado at times and I think too often such features are missed by aggressive storm chasers.

In the end, of course, it is always a goal to see a tornado. I do prefer to see them in the wide open spaces away from destruction of life and property. After chasing this storm for nearly three hours, we were rewarded with an “elephant trunk” type tornado as the sun was setting. It provided a unique opportunity to capture some fantastic pictures.

In the end, this was just the type of storm chase I enjoy and anticipate – amazing storm, tornado intercept, low fuel cost, and nobody was injured.

I have fallen behind in updating the photo blog, but that does not mean that I have stopped shooting. On the contrary, I’ve been as active as even capturing shots of all types. One of my favorite styles is Bokeh, or the art of the blur. In such cases the foreground is brought into focus while the background is blurred to accentuate the subject of the shot. I truly enjoy snapping photos of this type with the subject usually nature or people. Here are a couple of recent pictures taken with my DSLR.

Sometimes in life the simple pleasures are the best. For me, I have always been fascinated by the atmosphere and how it “works”. I’ve cultivated that passion into a career as a college professor whereby I continue to study the dynamics of the atmosphere and teach the next generation the state of the science. As part of that career, my responsibilities call for travel to various places which allows me to indulge in something I actually enjoy … flight. I could certainly do without the hassles of “travel”, but I love to be in the clouds staring out the window and simply experiencing a different view of the atmosphere.

Of course, as an amateur photographer, I also enjoy capturing the unique moments of flight and the atmosphere. So yes, I confess that I will use my knowledge of weather and the estimated flight path to pick as good a window seat as possible to catch glimpses of atmospheric awesomeness. In some cases that is flying next to a towering thunderstorm. In others, it is catching the sunrise or sunset above the clouds. The shots below were taken of a sunrise on a recent flight from an altitude of 25,000 ft – it is simply impossible to see this perspective standing on the ground. Yet a simple pleasure such as this goes along way toward being a bit happier each day. Well, as long as I can fly.

Photos taken with an iPhone 3GS.

As the sun set on 8 August 2011 a storm moved in on my location slowly from the west and began producing multiple cloud to ground lightning strikes. The challenge, but also the payoff, for this type shot is the lighting as well as the lightning. With the sun setting behind the storm the shutter can remain open for approximately 10 seconds before the shot becomes overexposed. However, in this case the storm cooperated quite well and produced some incredible bolts in dry air that I was able to capture with my DSLR. The results are shown below and represent some lightning pics that are among my all time personal favorites.

During August 2011 I had the fortune of photographing a series of thunderstorms over a 5 hour stretch that produced prodigious lightning. What made these late summer storms so special is that they were high-based storms that yielded many cloud to ground (CG) strikes. In particular, I photographed 4 specific storms at different intervals and took over 500 shots trying to capture lightning photographs that night. My next set of blog entries will detail some of the best captures from the event and the techniques and tools of the trade.

First, I want to share a single photo from the first storm that occurred just prior to sunset. These types of lightning photos are difficult to obtain due to the natural light and the tendency to overexpose the picture while waiting for a strike. Thus, I was forced to leave the shutter on my Canon XS open for only 3 seconds which subsequently yielded over 150 landscape images with no lightning. However, I was able to capture a couple of images with the one below ranking as one of my favorites. In this case, a beautiful arching CG strike with backlighting due to the setting sun – the colors were accentuated due to a polarized filter.

As part of my work I often have to travel to various places. Now, as someone who has made a career out of studying the weather, I love to fly (although I am not a fan of the hassle of airports). I’ll often grab the window seat on a plane just to stare out at the landscape and skyscape to pick out subtle details others would normally miss.

On a recent trip I was on an early morning flight but seated on an aisle next to a gentleman who was at the window and wanted to sleep. Luckily he did not close the shade to both windows which allowed me to lean forward and stare out toward the east at the rising sun. Just as it began to clear the horizon, we passed over a field of cumulus clouds. At this point I could not resist taking out my iPhone and snapping some pictures. Of course to do this, I had to reach across the sleeping passenger and with one hand simultaneously snap the picture while steadying the camera/phone. In the end, I got a couple of great shots including my favorite of the group below.

I’ve often commented how important it is to keep a camera with me at all times – you just never know when you’ll come across that amazing shot you want to capture. This was true on September 24th when, while on the way home, I watched the sun set below a cirrus deck and transition the atmosphere into an amazing array of colors. While I did not have my DSLR, I had my iPhone and found a place to take some pictures. In the end, the one shown below is my favorite of series I took and shows a typical Oklahoma landscape (silhouetted) with a sky that is visually on fire.

I always carry my iPhone with me because you never know when an opportunity will arise to capture a moment in the form of a picture. Such was the case recently on an evening trip to my favorite fishing spot. In between casts I took a series of photos as the sun began to set. Below is the procession as the sun slowly slipped below the horizon … but not before illuminating the area with brilliance.

Of course, the good news is that not only was the sky amazing, but the fishing was good too!

Have you ever been in a place where you feel like something is just out of reach, but if you stretch (or were stretched) you could grab it. I know that I have felt that way before about a lot of things in life. It is in those times when we stretch (or are stretched) that we can learn a lot about who we are. Sometimes the stretch can be painful or frustrating, but later we realize just how far we’ve grown due to the process itself. Sometimes we never get what we’re reaching for, and we’re disappointed or even thankful (later). And sometimes we twist and contort and grow and flex and through perseverance … eventually, success!! Even so, many times we look back and admire and appreciate the process more than the achievement.

What I love about the created world is how it often imitates life. As Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by watching”. Take the beautiful giraffe below – there is more to the picture than just a cool image. Can you see the “stretch”?