Start of July

Showers wrapping around the back of the same pesky cut off low spinning over the Midwest on the 1st weren't much to speak of but a cell at Bethany did intensify on arrival and produce an interesting base. The fact that storms were traveling to the SSW is what made them unique. Much further to the east, Dan Robinson captured a few westward moving TORNADOES developing closer to a well positioned MCV during peak heating.


c/o RadarScope







On the 3rd I ended up down at the Lake Shelbyville spillway and was fortunate to encounter several Lancet Clubtail dragonflies. I had hoped for the opportunity to shoot these colorful odonates again since getting one last year but not of ideal quality. I also had access to a Canon T3 thus enabling me to get my sharpest images yet. Per the first image, they assume the hyper inverted stance you see just before taking flight which is a characteristic I have not noticed before in other species.




I was laying flat on the ground and wonder if perhaps it was mocking me?


Shelbyville Beach, flooded and closed.


Fooling around at a July 4th picnic, exploding bang snap.


Baby mantis on my fingertip is not the best quality but also not easy to remain steady.


Not feeling any particular single frame of my continuous Warrensburg IL fireworks captures, I went with composite stacks including 5 images for the first, 8 for the second and 104 for the last. No lightning like the past two years but at least there was a dying 'storm' over in WC IL per the first image. As for the single explosion shooting out of frame on the last, it was massively cool for I was also using the 10-24 wide angle. It would be the only one like it throughout the show. A nice alternative to Decatur which is a spectacular event but rife with safety concern.