2009 Revisited

I've been working on a big task over the past few months when I have time which is to re-edit all my stuff from 2009. Currently I don't have much of it online even though it was an excellent year for Illinois weather and nature photography. Some would argue the weather aspect since the Central Plains baked under a persistent ridge of high pressure for much of the typical storm season. Over here on the lee side however, we had numerous systems drop in along the periphery of this ridge which was pretty much draped across the Midwest. Anyways, starting with January, here are a few samples even though for the period through March I am already up to over 50 keepers. Maybe I'll get the project done this year and maybe not but among the tasks is to also redo video clips to be of better quality and with audio from the moment. The existing ones on YouTube were silent as I did not begin applying this technique till much later. Much of it is just wind buffeting but it's better than nothing.

January 9


February 11 and a picture that gave me fits for being jacked.




March 3 and my first success with macro photography.


March 8 and a front lit shelf lifting with a morning outflow boundary. It was this event that made me want to capture another front lit shelf which finally happened in 2012.


Severe thunderstorm later that day with the same complex to produce a damaging tornado in Sangamon county a short while earlier. It was here I got nailed by a powerful wind gust that sent both of my cameras tumbling into the mud which can be seen in the re-edited video around 1:43.




March 24 and ragged mammatus at twilight behind a departing system. You can hear Ava yelling at me in the distance.




March 31 and a highly sheared moisture starved frontal boundary passage that wrapped up a small wall cloud in front of Ava and I. This day was special to me and in the re-edited time lapse video with audio, you can hear dialogue from Ava as she asks about the whistling wind in nearby power lines. In terms of severity this was a non-event for which the best ones usually are.

Light Icing

Saturday into Sunday we had an overrunning event resulting in a minor glaze of ice.





During the Sunday midday we had another round of frozen precipitation as fine sleet and graupel. The shell is a mere 3/16th's of an inch in length.

New Year

Thanks to the irresponsible parent who allowed her sick kid to attend school so she wouldn't miss the Christmas party and was hacking all over the other children, Ava brought home the flu for holiday break. Poor kid was miserable the whole time and eventually it transferred to me wherefore I've been down since the 29th. This bug has been the worst yet and all I have been doing is coping. The initial flu phase is relatively short lived but it hangs on as a persistent annoying cold. Fortunately my work was cool and allowed ample time to be away so unlike many selfish people who choose to take their germs around the general populace, I haven't made anyone sick. Anyways, I had some ideas for an end of year "best of" post but decided it wasn't worth it. Being ill gave me pause to think about many things. So here we are, 2013 and I am very grateful for the good people of common interest who remain a part of my life. Have a nice year, good luck, be well and treat people even better.







and sunrise today.