Double Calender Publications...

I recently had some photographs featured in two different calender publications. One was a from a local radio station's 2011 wall calender, "Reflecting Life in Texoma". KMOC (FM 89.5) is a Christian radio station who base out of Wichita Falls.  More info on KMOC and how to obtain one of these calenders can be found on their website.

The following images were featured in the KMOC 2011 Wall Calender

 Snowy Road

 Frozen

 Winter Sunset

 TEXAS

 Hay Day

Secondly, I received news that the Photography Corner 2011 Wall calenders are now ready to be ordered. More info on who else was featured and where to buy can be found here.

This image is published in the 2011 Corner Calender from www.photographycorner.com

Doing the Dishes: A Bothersome Household Chore Or...

Is it a photographic opportunity?

So I had this idea for a photograph. I was going to be experimenting with high speed flash. I love all the creative things I can do with this. I used my Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 micro lens (AI), 2 Nikon SB 600's at 1/32 power and a shutter speed of 1/20th. It seemed to work out pretty well. Needless to say, there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up afterwards.

Thanks for the support.

-Ben

10/22/10 Chase Teaser...

Here is a teaser photograph of one of the supercells we chased on Friday. To see more visit http://majesticnoise.blogspot.com/

Take care!

-Ben

Awesome Lightning and 10/10/10 Chase Report...

My full chase report is on my new storm chasing blog. Here is a little taste of some of the action.

Thanks.

-Ben

Desktop Backgrounds Now Available...

You can now download some of images to use as a desktop background. I have 20 images with resolution of 800px, 1024px, 1280px, and 1080p sizes. Check it out in the link here.

Thanks for the support.

-Ben

Nothing Like Fall Weather...

Fall weather--70 degree temperatures, clear skies. and a gentle breeze, who doesn't love Autumn in Texas? Last week we received some very pleasant weather. It was so enjoyable, that I woke up before sunrise (something that rarely happens now) and drove down to Goron Lake in Iowa Park. I hadn't visited the lake in a while and was curious to see what was new. Gordon Lake has always been a favorite location of mine. It never disappoints. Hopefully we will have more fall weather heading our way next week.

Thanks for the support.
-Ben

 Tranquil scenes like these are why I keep coming back to Gordon Lake.

 I almost always prefer some clouds in sunrise/sunset shots, but there are times when I will shoot a "plain" sunrise. They are prefect for back lit shots like this one.

 After the sun reached a certain height it was time to focus on some of the wildlife.

A pair of Grackles perched in the cattails.

 There is a residential Great Blue Heron that hangs around the lake. I was fortunate to get close shots of this bird. I just wish the light was at a different angle.

The Snowy Egret is also seen during the summer months. This one was a little too preoccupied with catching breakfast, it didn't really mind me being so close to it.

 Semipalmated Sandpipers are always fun to shoot. They're very fast and almost never sit still. They are also hard to approach, usually you have to wait for them to come to you. I was lying on my stomach for almost 20 minutes before a group of them landed not more than 10 feet from me.

 A pair of foraging sandpipers.



I think this is my personal favorite of the day. I love the graduation of color from the orange to the blue in the shot. The pose and angle of the bird helps male this a more intimate portrait.

New Storm Chasing Blog...

I decided to start a blog specifically for my storm chasing. I will no longer be posting the chase reports on this blog. I will however, be posting highlight photographs and a link to the storm chasing blog. Be sure to subscribe to learn about possible chases and I also have a live stream link in there as well and now you can follow along on a chase.

Thanks.

-Ben

Majestic Noise

Have You Picked Up Your WFLAR Today?...



The new edition of the Wichita Falls Literature and Art Review.

My photography is featured in this season's edition of the Wichita Falls Literature and Art Review Magazine. If you haven't heard about the WFLAR you can find out more information and where to pick one up here.



My biography page in the WFLAR. Elisabeth Hawley captured these images during a meeting of the Red River Photography Club. We were discussing portraiture lighting and yours truly was the unfortunate model. LOL!

This season features 100+ pages of captivating photography, inspiring poetry/prose, and insightful articles all from local Wichita Falls artists. I was not the only photographer featured in this WFLAR. Mark Moody, Elisabeth Hawley, and Richard Carter, are just a few of the several photographers showcasing their images. The WFLAR is a great non profit organization promoting literature and art in the community. I plan to submit more images for the next edition.

These images were featured in the WFLAR. All of them were full page (double truck) spreads. Storm on the Plains, Storms..., and Rotating Wall Cloud Hamlin, TX. 







Cloud Formations Thanks to Hermine...

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Tropical depression Hermine came through our forecast area. In fact the central area of circulation was over my home town, Wichita Falls, TX. Extensive cloud cover and precipitation limited instability. Therefore, the SPC was not too worried about severe weather. Low level shear profiles would support an isolated, weak tornado threat. This was enough to get me interested in a chase. I originally targeted Gainsesville, TX. I did get diverted to some developing storms near Jacksboro and Montague, TX. I should have stuck with my original target. Around 7:30pm a report came in of a brief tornado touchdown two miles north of Lindsay, TX! Oh well, that is how it goes sometimes. Though I didn't capture the tornado I still came back with some decent photos.

Hopefully we will have another chase before winter.

Thanks for viewing.

-Ben

Outside of Henrietta, TX on US 82 I saw this scene with the desolate barn, rolled up hay bales, and feeder bands from Hermine. I had to pull over to capture this image.
Sunlight! The sun briefly came out and thunderstorms started to form along the feeder bands.

We had an incredible amount of moisture. Our dewpoints reached a max of 76! The result was very low bases. In this picture you can see how close the ragged base is to the Texas prairie.

Towers start to form in the feeder bands.

I really liked this capture. Beautiful front light created a very contrasty sky. I only wish the power lines weren't there, Grrr...

Wider shot to reveal all the unique cloud formations.

More Storms this Week?...

Visible satellite image of tropical storm Hermine.

Infrared image of Hermine

Tropical storm Hermine is forecast to make its way through a portion of the southern plains from Monday-Thursday. The storm currently has a max winds at 60mph and is moving at about 15mph. While all the models show the storm breaking apart after it hits land, Hermine will still bring a substantial amount of tropical moisture. Thunderstorms are forecast from Tuesday night-Thursday morning for our area. Should be interesting to see what develops. Severe weather doesn't seem very likely right now due to the lack of CAPE on all the model runs. I should be off on Wednesday this week and I will try to do some chasing. Right now it looks like the largest threat is going to be flooding.

NWS Graphicast depicting Hermine's path. Note how it should be right over us Wednesday afternoon.


The SPC is not saying much for severe weather at this time. Inconsistencies in the model runs make it difficult to predict the severe potential. The have issued a Day 3 "See Text" which usually indicates a less than 5% probability of severe weather.

09/02/10 Severe Thunderstorms in Wichita Coutny...

Satellite image of Hurricane Earl passing to the east of North Carolina. Earl was partly responsible for our thunderstorms we had this week.

9/2/10:

A cold front was forecast to advance through our forecast area. Tropical moisture had also moved in our area thanks to Hurricane Earl. This spawned off scattered thunderstorms during the afternoon. The cold front caught up to these storms and formed into a squall line late evening. I was working at Radioshack and I remember hearing our display of weather radios all going off warning us about the severe weather on the way. There was a high wind report during this time, so I was unable to observe it, but I did watch the storm advance and got a few good gusts myself. Here is my quick report.

Thanks.

-Ben

Radar image of the squall line. This was about 10min after the high wind report.

Velocity scan shows a very outflow dominant storm. This is where I experienced some moderate to high winds.

Report of a 76mph wind gust in Wichita Falls. Amazingly, there was no power loss at our location!

The shelf cloud and distant core advancing over us. I like how the lightning lit up the core in an eerie bluish glow. There was a report of dime to quarter size hail at this point.

Anvil crawler lightning stretches across the night sky. This was my only decent lightning capture the entire night.

NWS preliminary storm reports. Wichita Falls has the highest recorded wind gust, with Edmund coming in second (75mph). Lawton had the only hail report with quarter size (1.00 in).

Spoon Splash...

Here is a riddle for you: What do you get when you mix a photographer, a spoon full of milk, and insomnia? Hint: you can scroll down to the photos see the answer.

The answer? A mess!

Last night I was not able to fall asleep. I tried counting sheep, counting backwards from 500--nothing. An image kept playing through my mind. The image was of a droplet of milk hitting a spoon and exploding in a crown shape. Since I couldn't fall asleep I got out my notebook and drew the layout to my envisioned image. After I completed I thought to myself "Hmm...This looks very possible. And after all, I don't have to work tomorrow. I could do this!" So at 4:13 am I got up set up for my shot and started making a mess. For this series I used two Nikon SB 600 flashes. The first was placed to the camera's left and pointed down at the spoon. The second was used to illuminate the background. For this I wanted a small angle of light. So I rolled up a paper plate and made a snoot. Both flashes were set at 1/16th power with an exposure of 1/30th, f/11, ISO: 200. It was a fun series to do and got my creative juices going. Here's to more insomnia!

-Ben

A paper plate, a pair of scissors, and some rubber bands. Voila impromptu snoot for the flash.

My main light set at the 1/16th power.

Now at 1/30th, f/11, ISO:200 my cameras meter was indicating a -4 stops underexposure (see above image). And you may be thinking to yourself, "1/30th of a second isn't fast enough to stop a milk drop." Well, you're right. That's why we use the flash as our shutter speed. At full power (1/1) the flash will last about 1/1000th of a second. This is still a little too slow for splashing milk, but at 1/16th power its more like 1/10000th of a second! Now we're talking! However, 1/16th power does decrease the flash output so you have to compensate, in this case I moved the flash closer.

OK, so now were at 1/10000th of a second as a shutter speed, now its time to get the timing down. In this case its too soon.

A little better, but the timing was too late.

That's more like it! Its all in the timing.

I love this one. The timing and action is excellent!

Splash!

I was doing pretty well for a while, but I was curious to see what would happen if I dropped the milk from a greater height?


A bigger splash!


If I get the milk to hit just right this is what happens. This was my personal favorite of the series.

It was a great series and fun to experiment with. There was a substantial mess to clean up, however. After I got the shot I was looking for I went back to my room downloaded the images, crawled back into bed and went right to sleep, without the help of narcotics, countdowns or leaping livestock.