Shana's Birthday 2012

It was Shana's birthday today and we decided to head out and grab dinner.  We wanted to take photos since we don't hardly have any of us.  Below are three of my favorites.  Enjoy.

De Kalb, IL Shelf...errr... almost a shelf....9/17/12

I spent the majority of my day downloading data for some research I am working on.  The lengthy downloading process allowed me to leave work a bit early to beat the rain home (I rode my bike). Well, I beat it home and decided to head just outside of town a bit to try and catch a developing shelf.  It look promising for about 10 minutes then fell apart.  The photos below catch the resulting 'crapvection'.  Either way, I made it home in time for dinner.  Let's hope that Davis Hall didn't lose power so my data continued to download.  Enjoy. 

De Kalb, IL Windfarm 2.0 9/9/12

My good friend Grant Herbert shot me a text around 5 PM asking if I wanted to head out later for some sunset photos.  Of course, I decided to tag along and have a look with it being so nice outside.  The smell of the fall air is back and I love it.  Below are the shots I grabbed.  Enjoy.

De Kalb, IL Low-topped Cumulus Tower

I was sitting at home this evening and I noticed that we had a nice cumulus tower that was moving slowly just east of town.  I grabbed my camera and headed out to see if I could grab some photos at sunset.  Below are some lucky shots I snagged with little editing.  I was on my game this evening. Enjoy.

This is my pitch at a '05 Ford Escape.  Get yours now! 

Click here for a short time-lapse of the low-topped cumulus tower

Matthiessen State Park/Engagement 8/18/12

I have fallen a bit behind with the blog posts this past week so I decided to catch up tonight.  When Shana moved up here my mother decided to come up and stay for a few days to help us get settled. This presented me with an opportunity to go engagement ring shopping with my mother and get her opinion.  We snuck out of the apartment and said we were going to clothes shopping for me but instead headed to the jewelry store.  I had been looking at rings for a while and knew what diamond cut, clarity, color, and caret I wanted so, it was only a matter of picking out the right setting and getting the best deal.  I ended up getting what I wanted and was set to propose in mid-October on a camping trip.

Well, after some thinking I decided that waiting would only make us rush more to throw together a wedding.  Also, waiting for the middle of the semester when I am very busy was not a smart idea.  So, I decided to go for it at the end of the summer.

Shana and I like to hike and camp so I convinced her to take a day trip to Matthiessen State Park (Northern/Central Illinois) for some walking and nice photo opportunities.  I hid the ring in my bag and decided that I would do it when we were hiking..... hopefully near a waterfall......  Well, the drought we have been in ruined that idea as the water wasn't flowing well, but I found a nice spot at the top of a small waterfall where the sun was peaking through the trees.  I wasn't very nervous as I don't get nervous about many things, but I was no doubt a bit lack-luster in my presentation.  I guess I am too simple for a big speech! haha.  Either way, she said "Yes" and she squeezed out a few tears.  I guess I did well enough!  Below are some shots I snapped of our hike and a photo of her ring.

7/1/12 De Kalb, IL convection

Well, it looks like we are into a summer pattern here in northern Illinois.  Sloppy convection with the occasional shelf cloud or two.  Today was one of those days where I was getting my laundry together and glanced at the radar.  There seemed to be a nice little shelf cloud forming to the west, so I decided to head out and have a look.  It wasn't too impressive but I won't pass up on a local opportunity to see something.

06/29/12 De Kalb, IL shelf/lightning

IT RAINED!!!!!! I was starting to wonder whether or not we will ever see rain again around here.  This morning I had to wake up early and take observations at the co-op station here in De Kalb and realized I felt sick.  So, I decided to stay home and sleep in a bit after taking my observations.  After a few hours, I woke up and noticed that it was a bit dark outside and glanced at the radar.  Well,  I saw that we had a nice shelf starting to form west of town.  I grabbed my camera and took off out the door.  I raced a few miles west to get into some clearing (I don't like buildings in my photos) and had just enough time to grab a few shots.  I wanted to time lapse it but since I got a late start I didn't even have time to set up the tripod.  Once I saw the rain coming I decided to race back east in hopes of getting ahead of it.  Alas, very quickly realized it was surging out and my efforts were futile.  Either way, I feel better!  Cooler temps, rain, and an amazing looking shelf turns out to be pretty good medicine.

Well, after a few weeks without rain we got hit twice today.  The second time around was a just a little scraping though.  I decided to head south of town and try to get on the edge of a mini-mcs, which quickly broke up into a multi-cell cluster, in hopes of grabbing some lightning.  I was out there for about 20 minutes or so but once a bright CG flash hit about 500 feet from me I called it quits (realized life was more important).  Below are the photos I caught using my wide-angle lens.  The flashes were were much closer than they appear.  

06/16/12 De Kalb, IL Outflow

Well, I haven't posted anything for a while because we have been in a bit of a drought.  As I traveled down state and back to Evansville, IN for a buddies' wedding I noticed that the crops aren't doing much better down their either.  The farmers are starting to get a bit worried because this spring has been quite abnormal temperature, wind, sunshine, and precipitation wise.  Either way, today looked like a good chance for some relief with a slight chance of some rain and possibly an MCS that could produce some nice photogenic shelf-clouds.... Well, as the the system neared I was quite pessimistic about everything thinking it looked like garbage and unorganized crap (which it was -- below--).  But, since I forgot what rain and storms looked like I decided to head to the south of town to try and shoot down the barrel of the outflow from the system.

I was hoping for a nice shelf but it just didn't get its act together.  I decided to stay after dark and try and catch a few lightning shots but this far north there wasn't much lightning to speak of.  The only chance I had was a nice crawler that I missed because I was in between shots and the camera was processing..... Those are the breaks.  Lightning hates me.  However, as I write this right now, we are getting some much needed rain and that is good.  Below are a few shots I grabbed from this evening.  They are a bit grainy (which I hate), but I had to digitally bring up the exposure more than I like because it was a bit darker than I anticipated.  Enjoy. 

DeKalb, IL partial eclipse and sunset 6/20/12

It was a really warm day today and it looked like there might be a great chance for some storms..... Well, it is DeKalb so part of that last sentence is mildly humorous.  We did have some storms move north of us and south of us, but it was quiet overall.  So, I was left hoping that the clouds would clear out enough to in order to see the partial eclipse this evening.  Sure enough, they held off and the partial eclipse was really cool.  Yet, the sunset that followed it was just as amazing.  It was best sunset I have seen in a long time.  The shots I grabbed are below.  Enjoy.

Click here for link to time lapse of the partial eclipse