Tornado Alley Photo Workshop

Itinerary

Since this is a storm chasing workshop, the itinerary is completely dictated by the weather. We may have to drive some long distances to find the best storms. Each day starts with a clean slate and we'll make our plans based on real time meteorological data. The itinerary below is just an example of what you can expect.

• Day 1:  Meet at 7PM for a mandatory orientation session at our hotel near the Oklahoma City International Airport. We will cover many of the shooting techniques for storms, tornados, and lightning.
• Day 2: We meet our tour climatologist at 9AM for a safety briefing and a look at the latest weather data. We'll hit the road as soon as we are done en-route to our highest probability storm location. Our forecasting pays off as we photograph a spectacular supercell over the expansive grasslands. We even manage to get some dramatic cloud-to-ground lightning bolts! We find a nearby hotel and settle in for the night.
• Day 3:  Today it looks like some big storms may form to the north of us. By mid-afternoon, it starts to get kind of crazy with heavy rain and hail. We manage to get around it and see a funnel cloud starting to form. The funnel hits the ground a few times as we furiously fire off shots. We continue to chase the action and are treated to glorious sunset light and beautiful clouds.
• Day 4: After our morning rendezvous, we hold an image critique and post-processing session before we hit the road towards our next potential storm. This one is a good one with lots of swirling cloud structure, texture, and lightning! We spot some good cloud rotation but any funnels are hidden in the rain shaft. We stay out photographing lightning until well after dark.
• Day 5:  The weather data says we need to head further north, so we put in some long road mileage. But it's all worth it as we get to photograph our first full-fledged tornado!  We follow this storm system for another couple hours, capturing many incredible images.
• Day 6: Today is a quiet day on the weather front as a lot of atmospheric energy was sucked out by the previous day's storm. Without a high probability target, we spend the morning doing some post-processing training and then head out to photograph landscapes, quaint barns, windmills, and picturesque small towns. We end the day photographing sunset in a nearby national park.
• Day 7: The models show a good deal of promise today so we head towards a system developing to our south. It turns into an exciting move-shoot-move situation as we follow a giant supercell across the plains. We all get some spectacular shots of cloud structure, lightning, and mammatus clouds.
• Day 8: It's another day of following weather models and hedging our bets on the best storm activity. Fingers crossed we'll get lucky on our final chase day.
• Day 9: It's hard to believe our storm chasing adventure is over! We hold one final post-processing session before starting the long drive back to Oklahoma City. You can plan your return travel for anytime after 4PM on May 22nd.