Santa Fe day trip

Got to visit the tent rocks national monument today. Incredible hike and was a great photo op. Can wait to start editing some of these photos because some of the colors are going to really pop. Below is a capture from my phone one of the picture from my camera.

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Lighthouse (Palo Duro Canyon) Star Trails

Here are a couple photos from last month of the Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon (SE of Amarillo) with some star trail action. Been wanting to get some lighthouse shots after dark for years and made it happen. Brady Kendrick came on the 5 mile round trip hike with me, which got delayed because I forgot my corded trigger in Amarillo and had to go get it. We didnt get to start hiking till around 3 am, but still got a couple hours at the lighthouse to take pictures and watch the sunrise. Really was not too cold for January either.

Models are beginning to hint at another taste of severe weather for next weekend, maybe even Southern Plains area. Euro and GFS are in line so far, but is just a wait and see at this point if a big storm really does dig into the southwest. If that does happen, the moisture return will be the key. Always is this time of year.

Also included a photo from a few days before my Palo night trip that I took down at the Sand Drags on the Canadian River off 287 on January 4th.

It is getting close to that time again!

Storm chasing will be back in full swing within the next couple months. Many have already got there first chase in this year. I even ventured out for some lightning last week and it was a bust till I was 5 miles from home and the lightning finally got going. Looking forward to this year for multiple reasons, but the most important is a stable day job that is flexible when you take time off. Being in Amarillo allows me to stay at work on the close days without wasting leave. Last year was hampered dearly by working night shifts at 2 different jobs where either I couldnt use my annual leave that I had or I didn't have any built up. The chases I did get in were ugly and major wastes of money.

2nd reason I am excited is that I got the parts in to add a roof rack to my Saturn Ion. My camera dome I built last year, that I barely got to use because it only attached to my Jeep that was too expensive to chase in, is going to be out on every chase this year on my Saturn. I wont be able to record HD though unless I want to throw a tape up in there from time to time, but I doubt I will. The camera with a hard drive I tried last year shuts off too easy and wont work, so I am using my older Canon HV-20, which allows me to still stream and aleast record my dome footage in standard def to my computer. At somepoint I will definitely need to get an HD camera up there though.

The 3rd reason I am looking forward to this year is that the TX Panhandles have actually been receiving rain and snow here this year, so I am quite hopeful that the storms will be returning to my home turf and will equal some closer chases this year. Would be ok with gas prices staying high and the combination of the cancellation of "storm chasers" to help keep the less dedicated chasers off the roads this year so it wont be so crowded. If anything the prices will get everyone to partner up and reduce the traffic. Not that it really matters to me, because I pick such weird targets the number of chasers around tends to be quite low. I tend to like the risky targets, but that is generally the ones with the highest reward (when it comes to the best possible photos).