Storm

This blog I want to talk about another photo I really like, Storm. This photo is part of an extensive project I have been working on that is concerned with with extreme weather, and it's secondary ramifications. Some of this work will go up in the Project Area of my website over the next two weeks, under the name EXTREME WEATHER. This project was inspired by the California drought of the last half decade, but the images are from all over the American West. The FLOOD photo, in the concepts section is also from this body of work. OK, so let's get back to Storm.

Storm was taken during the autumn of 2016 on a trip up to Yosemite National Park in the Tuolumne Meadows area on the east side of the park. I track weather; heat waves, floods, early snows and fires. When other people are canceling their travel plans, I am packing up the car to have a soggy or oven like weekend. This photo was taken as a late season hurricane over Baja California broke up over the Sierra Nevada, leading to torrential afternoon electric rain/hail storms. Generally my expectations in this type of situation are storm clouds blow in quickly after lunch, the light gets awfully blue/gray, and then the wind picks up, and finally there is a half hour cloud burst. The first two days I was up in the Tuolumne area this is exactly what took place, but the third day the storms seemed to stall for a bit, and the light split. Near Olmstead Point the sun was partially out and the light was slightly warm, while the background mountains had already turned that ghostly blue/gray with hardly any contrast. This situation lasted for maybe ten minutes, but it allowed me to photograph the landscape as the storm slowly swallowed up the sun. There are about 25 photos of this landscape, but this is the only one where the weather in the foreground, and the weather in the background map onto the actual geographies. I really like how two neighboring landforms can be in such close proximity, but be so distant in light, color and weather.

On the way back to the car, needless to say, I got drenched to the bone, and had to change into other clothes to wait out the storm. That is an afternoon I will not be forgetting soon...