NEWS:

9-1-10:   Small lightning account done HERE.

8-25-10:   No, I'm not dead. This site has been neglected for quite a while now. I figured I should update once in a while to let people know that I am still maintaining this site. It has been a crazy past few weeks. First and foremost, I am now a married man! My beautiful bride and I were married on August 14th and we've been out of town until early this week. Below is a picture of us on our big day. Not the best of me, but who cares. The photo was actually taken by my cousin Crystal.

As far as photography goes, I haven't done SQUAT since the last chase back June 21st. I should probably shake the dust off the camera. There have been some CME's that were earth-directed, but I missed my opportunity apparently. There were a series of two CME's; first a shot from sunspot 1092, then an eruption from a magnetic filament linked to 1092's blast. My idea was to wait for the first CME (a C-3) to disrupt the magnetic field then wait for the secondary shot to rush in from behind and surge southward. That never happened. They ended up combining into one huge solar wind field, which would have been faintly visible from my location, as I sat on the couch and watched the Chicago Cubs get smoked yet again. Solar maximum isn't for another couple of years though, so I'll be anxiously awaiting for that to happen.

Lightning. Yeah, non-existant. This has been, BY FAR, the WORST year for lightning opportunities I can remember. The two best active months have come and gone with little to show for. I might combine the two or three mediocre outings I've had into one just to get another entry up here. This definitely sucks because lightning is one of my favorite things to photograph and I haven't been able to put to use some ideas I've had in mind for a year and a half now.

As far as everything else goes photography-wise...well, I live in Illinois. What else is there? I can go shoot star trails, but that just doesn't sound appealing to me anymore. Hopefully soon we'll get something going here. I'm crossing my fingers for one last good fall chase to justify the lack of lightning-filled nights. To tell the truth, I'm sort of glad storm season is behind me since all the best days ALWAYS fell at inopportune times, with the exception of May 10th. Now I'm getting excited for bald eagle season. Just 4 months away!!