stormchasing

"Vorticity" is a new time-lapse short film by Mike Olbinski, a storm-chasing wedding photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Olbinski spent 18 days driving 20,000 miles across 9 states and shooting 60,000 frames to create what you see in the 6-minute video above.

They say that a dog is man’s best friend and I wholeheartedly agree. Not only are they loyal, forgiving, compassionate, and much more, but in my case, my dog shares my passion with me.

There are stormchasing photographers and there are portrait photographers. Usually people don't combine the two genres, but that's exactly what photographer Benjamin Von Wong recently did. He spent two weeks chasing storms in an ambulance to shoot a series of unique portraits that have real storms in the background.

Storm chaser and time-lapse photographer Mike Olbinski has been turning his camera lens on the monsoon in Arizona for about 7 years, and this past summer he spent a whopping 48 days chasing storms. After 17,000 miles driven and 105,000 photos captured, Olbinski combined 55,000 of the best shots into the eye-popping time-lapse video above, titled "Monsoon II."

A powerful storm rumbled by Simla, Colorado, last week, and at the scene was professional storm-chasing photographer Kelly DeLay, who captured this "shot of a lifetime" showing a massive supercell storm cloud extending twin tornados to the ground below.

Mitch Dobrowner is a fine art photographer based in Studio City, California. Born on Long Island (Bethpage) New York he as have a wife (Wendy), 3 kids, a dog... and in his words, a bratty cat.

His work has been published by National Geographic Magazine, ABC News, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, NPR, Audubon Society, LA Times and LensWork, among others. Google recently produced a 2 minute commercial revolving around his work for their Search Stories campaign.

One week ago today, on June 3rd, a massive storm rolled through Nebraska where storm chasing photographer Mike Hollingshead -- whose work we've feature before on PetaPixel -- was prepared to chase down some likely tornadoes.

He didn't end up finding or chasing any tornadoes, but a storm he chose to leave behind earlier in the day in order to pursue his main target ended up turning into an incredibly powerful hail and wind storm, and doing some hard-to-believe damage to Hollingshead's own home town. He, of course, documented it all with his camera the next day.

If there was ever a time to use the term jaw-dropping, this might very well be it. Because while we've seen some amazing footage and even more amazing pictures of supercells and other spectacular weather phenomena, this (GoPro?) time-lapse by the storm chasers at Basehunters Chasing is really something to behold.

You might not come out on top if you weigh the pros and cons of storm chasing, but there are definitely pros beyond feeling like a bada** and a deep fulfillment of your twin passions for meteorology and spiking your adrenaline. If you want proof of that, just check out the awe-inspiring photography of storm chaser Mike Hollingshead.

Arizona-based photographer Mike Olbinski has been visiting the Central Plains of Texas for almost four years now in search of the perfect rotating supercell. A long-held goal of his, capturing one of these structures that look like massive, awe-inspiring "alien spacecraft" had always eluded him. That is, until his most recent trip.

There has been a series of devastating tornados in the American Midwest recently, and one of the emerging trends -- especially in this social media era -- is the hunt for dramatic photographs and videos. Earlier this week we wrote about how one particular filmmaker created a tornado-proof vehicle to capture footage from directly inside funnels.

That filmmaker is backed by the Discovery Channel and has the funds and know-how to do things correctly (i.e. "safely"). On the other hand, there is also a new generation of storm chasers who are getting closer and closer to the storms in ordinary vehicles; the video above is one example of when people take their cameras too close.

During the 2013 Moore tornado last week, a young man named Charles Gafford III stuck his cell phone through a hole in his storm shelter and captured close-up footage of the EF5 tornado as it passed by. If you thought that video was crazy, check out the footage above -- it shows what it's like to get hit directly by a massive EF4 tornado!

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

A devastating tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on Monday, May 20, 2013. It was reportedly over 2 miles wide at one point, and covered 20 miles during the 40 minutes it was on the ground. The National Weather Service has classified it as at least an EF-4 tornado with winds of at least 166 miles per hour.

NBC affiliate station WMC-TV had a helicopter camera in the sky capturing the whole thing, and released the time-lapse video above showing the storm traveling across the land before finally disappearing back into the clouds.

Over the past 12 years, I have spent countless hours finding myself in places that many would deem “the middle of nowhere.” I’m not there in awe of the bland landscape, yet instead I am staring up into the blue sky in hopes that the tiny little air molecules above me will develop into beastly, photogenic thunderstorms.

Tornadoes can be simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying (as an Alabama resident for the past 6 years, I can attest to that), and this time-lapse captures ten of them in action, including a mile-wide EF4. Fortunately, the majority of the tornadoes caught on camera during this chase missed (sometimes barely) major towns and cities. If you wanna get right into the action, the good stuff starts around 3:45.

Fine art photographer Mitch Dobrowner wanted to photograph storm systems, so he partnered up with Roger Hill -- regarded as one of the top storm-chasers in the world -- and was introduced to Tornado Alley. Dobrowner writes,

Words are inadequate to describe the experience of photographing this immense power and beauty. And the most exciting part is with each trip I really don’t know what to expect. But now I see these storms as living, breathing things. They are born when the conditions are right, they gain strength as they grow, they fight against their environment to stay alive, they change form as they age… and eventually they die. They take on so many different aspects, personalities and faces; I'm in awe watching them. These storms are amazing sights to witness.... and I’m just happy to be there—shot or no shot; it's watching Mother Nature at her finest. My only hope my images can do justice to these amazing phenomenona of nature.

His images certainly do them justice -- the stormy landscape photographs Dobrowner has made through these trips are jaw-dropping.