Gersh Photo Post | Max Gersh | Multimedia Photojournalist

Most people can enjoy or appreciate a spring shower. It takes a bit of a unique personality like that of my own to enjoy strong storms that produce heavy rain, hail, lightning and occasionally tornadoes.

I have what one might call a slight obsession with storms. There is something soothing about them even thought they can often be incredibly violent.

When I know storms are coming, I listen to NOAA weather radio, SKYWARN frequencies and constantly monitor live Doppler radar images from my phone or computer. All of this is in hopes of positioning myself to photograph the storm.

Out of pure interest, I took a weather spotter training course. I figured that this was another tool to have in the belt to ensure my safety and best position myself.

These past two weekends, I have been in St. Louis. Both times, I was greeted with tornado sirens. On the first occasion, I was in St. Louis City. There were too many trees and closely grouped buildings to see the clouds and where the storm was coming from.

The next weekend, I was a little further out in rural St. Louis. As the storm clouds rolled in, I went out.

Storm clouds that later set the greater St. Louis metro area under a tornado warning roll in over Gravois Bluffs. ©2010 Max Gersh

The sky looked ripe to produce a powerful storm. The only problem is that is was almost night time. The sky was so dark, it would be impossible to see the tornado coming. Thinking safety first (which I don’t always do), I retreated to my girlfriends apartment in Fenton where I could watch the skies from a basement window.

As the storm geared up overhead, I put my camera on a tripod and started taking long exposures out of the window in hopes of capturing some nice lightning shots. While lighting photography is always a bit of a luck game, it proved to be more difficult than usual that night.

There were many tremendous bolts. However, many of those were overexposed because of the high volume of cloud lightning that served as a large, soft skylight.

Here are a few of the better images I made. Keep in mind that since I was inside seeking shelter, I didn’t have the luxury of changing angles. Also, the spots on the pictures are rain on the window I was shooting through.

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

A lightning bolt strikes the ground in rural St. Louis while the area is under a tornado warning. ©2010 Max Gersh

It wasn’t until later that I knew how close the tornado was to passing directly overhead. One of my friends who is a storm junkie similar to myself took a screen shot of his radar software as the storm was declared to have a confirmed tornado.

This image shows the relative storm velocity. It essentially measures wind speed and direction relative to the storm itself. This is a key element used in predicting tornadoes.

I was at the “A” marker, approximately.

This radar image shows the relative storm velocity of a storm that produced a confirmed tornado in the St. Louis area.

The pink warning polygons are areas under tornado warning while the green are flash flood warning. Obviously, they can and do overlap.

If you notice the red patch on the radar image just south of the “A” marker, that is an area of the storm with winds moving in a different direction than the storm itself. That is where the tornado was.

I’m hoping to get a tornado photograph by the end of this storm season. It’s too bad that all of the strong storms that I run into have been at night.

When did they all come down? The leaves that is.

It seems like it was just yesterday when the grass was green. That is probably because many of the leaves started falling yesterday (or at least not too long ago). When I woke up this morning and stepped outside, I noticed that this car got bombarded with leaves overnight.

Ok. So it wasn’t completely “bombarded” but it did stand out more than any other car on the block. Red leaves on a black car. It made the mistake of parking under the tree in my front yard.

The crazy weather is confusing the plants. First we had temperatures below freezing that triggered the leaves to fall. Then it warms back up and the green fights back. I think the leaves are blocking the sunlight and killing the grass.

Oh well. I love all the color. It is a photographers dream!I can’t really complain about the 60 degree weather.

I think Gavin and I picked the best day to go camping in October. If we went any earlier, the trees wouldn’t have been as colorful. If we went any later, it would have been a little chilly.We had perfect weather, beautiful scenery and water that wasn’t too cold.

It’s always nice getting in touch with nature.

This year, our adventure started somewhere near Eminence, MO. Once we found the drop off point, we quickly got on the river. Shortly after, we tied off to a tree to go explore a cave.

We broke a few of the posted cave rules. We didn’t have helmets and we didn’t have three sources of light. As we wound back further into the cave, we realized we shouldn’t go any further without a big flashlight. For some reason, my LED light just wasn’t cutting it!

Once we set up camp for the night, it wasn’t too long before we were doing long exposures. The sky had been cloudy all day and blocked the full moon at night.

It almost looks like a set of wings coming up out of the tree line.

I woke up early-ish the next morning. It was at least early enough to see the morning fog.

On the right, you can see the site of our campfire. Notice the demonic log that we tried to burn and it just wouldn’t. I guess it has seen it’s fair share of heat and flame.

Our tent was really dwarfed by the surrounding nature.

Our trip out in middle Missouri wouldn’t be complete without a little bit of political ingenuity. On our drive there, as we passed through a town with an abundance of McCain signs, I noticed a lone Obama sign. It was unique. It was painted on a wooden plank. I only had a quick passing glance.

On the way back home, we wanted to stop and take a picture of the sign. Once we found it, I pulled into the driveway, got my camera and got out of the car. As I am framing the image, Gavin yells to me, “That’s not an Obama sign! That’s an Obama Grave!”

So it was.

When you have a long day of shooting, you hope for good weather. The one thing you don’t want to hear is:

“Windy with rain diminishing to a few showers late. High 73F. ENE winds shifting to NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall may reach one inch. Locally heavier rainfall possible.”

That’s what the weather channel has planned for tomorrow. The brief blurb says 80% chance of heavy rain/wind. This is of course hurricane/tropical storm Ike now that it has made its way on land.

Great.

I am shooting the St. Charles Marathon tomorrow. Marathons go on, rain or shine. That means photographers work, rain or shine. I am shooting with the Action Sports Images team out of Kansas City. We are all digging up our wateproof shoes, finding rain protection for our gear and getting ready for a long and wet day.

Since I have to be up around 5:30 am, I decided to pack my bag tonight. Luckily I am shooting for specific shots and don’t need to bring a slew of gear.

Included is:

• Crumpler 7 Million dollar home (a waterproof bag of course)
• Canon 1d Mark II in a plastic rain cover
• 3 spare batteries
• monopod
• memory cards in a hakuba case inside of a ziplock
• sunglasses (which I pray that I need)
• Camelbak Blowfish (when you are standing around shooting for 4-5 hours, you want water!)
• A variety of energy bars.
• Rain jacket (the white thing in the bag)

Not pictured are my energy drinks, waterproof boots, microfiber shirt, light weight pants…etc.

The marathon starts at 8am. If it is raining hard all morning and very windy, it could get cold very fast. Last year, I stocked up on chemical hand warmer packs. I might bring a few just in case.