The Aftermath

Moving away from wildlife photography was a success. Since this was never meant to be a business and has always been a hobby first, the only person to please was myself. The images that were being taken now were doing just that and provided the fuel for me to continue down this path. With the promising hopes of the lightning and then the university, the next goal was to combine the two and take a picture of the University Tower getting struck by lightning. This has proved to be harder than I thought but I'm still working on it. It is one of the tallest structures in the area, so it gets hit more than the rest of the buildings. Life will tell you differently, that when you really are looking for something the most, you will never find it. It is when you are not expecting anything that you find everything. Another storm eventually came through. The sky had a really good feeling about it. The sky became really black, and the wind settled down. Hoping for the best, I made my way over to the parking garage to get set up and the sky opened up. Lightning, heavy wind, rain all but where I needed it to be, on top of the tower. A few lightning strikes occurred all around me, and as the storm passed, I grew increasingly disappointed. As I looked to the south, there was a large black plume of smoke rising from the ground. Figuring my chances for the shot were over, I made my way over to the smoke. As I approached, traffic was backed up and I saw the top of the flames rising from a shopping center. Not more than a mile from where I was parked, flames erupted from this building. As I pulled up to the intersection, I was first in line. With my camera all ready to go, I aimed it through the windshield and took a couple pictures. After turning around the corner, there was a mass of firetrucks on the scene. With the Jeep being 'trail rated' haha, the curb was no longer an obstacle and I made it into a grassy area where no one else was. Having never seen the Toledo firefighters use a ladder truck before, it turned into a frenzy for me. I started taking pictures of everything about the trucks. With no experience in journalism, only a couple of them turned out but did they ever. After getting home my mom called me to tell me that storm produced a tornado about 20 miles away at the marina where we keep our boat. Thankfully, neither the boat or the camper was there. The following day I drove out there to see the damage. Since it was in the middle of the country there was not too much lost. Once entering into the marina, a few of the campers were moved, and a dry docked boats were pushed over. If I hadnt been so busy taking pictures of this fire I might have made it to the tornado, but my life is still here. I questioned my sanity later, when we had a tornado come through about 5 miles from our house. I thought I might get a picture of something when I drove up to Michigan at a point about 2 miles from our house. Standing up on an hill crest where a quarry was beginning to get blasted out the table was turnee and I got blasted with a wall of debris and winds that knocked my camera and tripod over. The sky changed into colors and shapes I didnt think existed so needless to say, the offroad capabilities of my jeep meant nothing now. It was all about speed. I think I broke every speed record on the streets and ran through every stop sign and light trying to get home. I was literally the only guy on the road. Once I got home the storm slipped just North of us, about where I was standing. I would have stayed longer, but due to the trees I could only see about a mile or two. It was a good adventure and a learning experience. I would hate to get into a situation like that again without some sort of practice. Yep, Ill probably do it again.