Storm Before the Podcast Episode 23: Storm Chaser Shannon Bileski

Join us as Shannon Bileski shares her journey from storm enthusiast to experienced storm chaser, highlighting key lessons on risk mitigation, the thrill of the chase, and the beauty of Mother Nature's extremes. In this heartfelt conversation, Shannon Bileski and Lori Grace Bailey explore resilience, self-worth, the joys and challenges of storm chasing, and the importance of authenticity and community support. They share personal stories, insights on overcoming adversity, and tips for aspiring storm chasers and photographers.

keywords storm chasing, weather photography, risk mitigation, tornadoes, lightning, storm photography, extreme weather, Canada storms, tornado chasing, storm safety storm chasing, resilience, self-worth, photography, storm photography, mental health, community, personal growth, storm chasing tips, storm photography tips

key topics

• Storm chasing techniques
• Risk mitigation in extreme weather
• Capturing lightning and tornadoes Resilience and self-reflection in storm chasing
• The importance of kindness and self-compassion
• Lessons learned from storm photography and chasing
• Community support and mental health in storm chasing
• Tips for aspiring storm chasers and photographers

Transcript

0:16

So you're gonna tell me what the five second rule is, what's that? So the five second rule is just do it for the first five seconds and just like get out, do it. And if you know something, if you wanna stop after five seconds, stop after five seconds. But the likelihood is 99 % of the time you're just gonna keep going. That's I, I need to apply the five second rule to my, to waking up as well. Cause I like staying in bed now, uh but right. Exactly. Well, there's the five second rule and that's a perfect introduction. want to welcome my, my guest this week is Shannon Bileski Shannon has been a storm chaser. I've, I've, I've known for years, ever since I started getting into it. Shannon's been doing this way back. Shannon's like dinosaur age chaser, I think. No, just kidding, I'm kidding. But I'm just kidding. Shannon has got some incredible images that are my bucket list kind of shots. And I hope that I can actually not replicate, but get something like that as far as bucket list. And we'll actually show you in just a minute. But Shannon, thanks for coming in. see you have Storm there. Tell us a little about Storm. So Storm is about 10 years old and now she's biting me. oh So she is a Storm. But I've always wanted a female Siamese cat. so I was with my ex-partner and we were looking for a dog and I said, we're not getting a dog without a cat. So she popped up on Kijiji and her name was Storm and she was born during a storm. So it was the perfect fit and I claimed her as mine. It was in the cards to just happen. It almost sounds like, no, come on. We know that you're a storm chaser. We know that you called her that. No, I guess not. That's amazing. But again, yes, thanks for coming on. I know it's been a few different misses. And I finally get to actually sit down and chat with you, someone I look up to as a storm chaser and a friend. And I think this is going to be fun. And it goes both ways. I thank you for having me on and I look up to you as a lightning photographer and friend. So yeah, it goes both ways. thank you. Well, hopefully you guys will stick around for this too, because I think we've got some good things to talk about here in the next hour. I'm always trying to wear a cool shirt that's related to what I love. I always have my Storm Before the Com podcast hat. But I am wearing, today I'm wearing Eat, Sleep, Chase and Repeat. I think that's Holicity. Yeah, it's a Holicity store, whatever that's called, the website. But what about you, So this tank top itself is Aaron J. Jax that I bought years ago. And this is the one I get most of the tornadoes in, especially the last couple of years. you know, Gary, South Dakota, I was wearing this one. yeah, yeah, we, yeah, we'll talk about that in a minute, but that was, that was one of my, when we talk about most memorable, that's one of them. That's definitely a top. Were you vocal? Were you like everybody else? my God! Or were you just like... I think I was, I actually have it, I was taking videos and stuff with my phone and I'm just like, I would, guess most of the time I don't get adrenaline with storms and tornadoes and stuff like that, because I'm usually with other people and it's, it's, you know, I find that sense of calm. um But I found with Gary, because I was a lot closer than what I'm used to, and you know, there was so many people on the road and I just see this thing. I was worried about all the chasers that were on the road. I'm like, they look like they're getting hit. And so I actually had quite a bit of adrenaline and I was telling the people that was across the road from me to kind of get into their safe place. so it was it was one of those times I was excited, but it was, you know, especially when it started doing that. you were locked in yeah, and like especially when the noodle was happening, like it was just, it was wild. It was wild. That's awesome. how many tornadoes did you do? I don't like keeping count. I don't even know why I'm asking the question. But you said tornadoes last year. You caught a few. Yeah, there was a couple in Saskatchewan that we caught. I was with my friend Cory Penner. And I think that was it for last year. Gary, there's another funnel. That's when I almost wrote my forerunner off with a deer. it was last year, yeah. I remember reading that your forerunner was in the shop for a long time and you were Not expecting to get it back by the way for runner club Yes, I love my forerunner. I am just what is it about 2,800 kilometers from 300 so it's It's it's had a long life, and it's still going strong like it still acts like it's brand new. I love my forerunner Yeah, yeah, but it was it was over $18,000 in damage, so it was yeah Yeah, oh yeah, yeah Yeah But even then 18,000. So what did this deer do and what happened with that? I saw one post this morning from a cow he hit near Fort Worth just this morning. Well, it was like several months ago, but I know he got injured and the front end was just complete. Like I've, I have seen in my law enforcement career living down here in Southern Arizona in open grazing areas. We actually had an agent in a, in a transport bus slam into a cow, full-size cow going 60, 70 miles an hour on the highway. And it totaled the cow, but it totaled the van she was driving and she was really injured. She was injured badly. So when I saw the cow in the guy's headlights and knowing that he's okay, what about you? Like. I don't think we talk about the dangers of not just other chasers, not of the tornado, but of the animals, namely deer. know John Sirlin hit one a couple of years ago. had a cow charge me. I've had, I think it was not getting past that. So real quick, how were you in a position to have a cow charge you? you chasing? so Manitoba cows once in a blue moon will get out from their fencing and all of it. I was just driving down the highway. It was probably midnight ish and I was sitting there talking on the phone and I'm just driving along and then I turned my high beams off because there was vehicles coming and then I saw something in the ditch. So I turned my high beams back on and there's a cow and it starts charging me. So I moved over so it wouldn't get me but. Yeah, it was, I'm like, that was a cow. And I looked back at my, dashcam. I'm like, that was crazy. Like, where did this thing come from? Yeah. I mean, so what about the deer?$18,000. I'm assuming you took that thing head on. Um, yeah, so basically, uh, think it was about 4 30 in the morning and, it was right before Carmen Manitoba. And I was after, I think I was chasing from like nine 30 that morning that I left and then was coming home 4 30 in the morning and half an hour from home. And, uh, yeah, it was a deep, um, really deep, steep ditch and there was a house with trees and I guess it just came shooting through and like, I had no chance. I'm pretty good at avoiding deer, but you know, this thing just popped up and straight across like it was fast. So no time to react. yeah, like it punched in the front grill. There was brains in the like where the driver's side light is. um It pushed the bully bar right into my radiator. Yeah, like I pulled over and couldn't get out of my truck because the door was pushed in so much. So I had to crawl around and so thankfully I didn't get to see the deer otherwise I would have been a huge mess. But I was cleaning up matter off of the ground like all of the debris and everything and I found an antler so for some stupid reason I took that home. I don't know why I took this home but I guess a bit of shock right? So yeah it was lots of damage. darn darn and and have you always are you a are you Canadian by by birth and all that good stuff. yep. Yeah, I grew up in Thompson, Manitoba, which is about eight hours north of Winnipeg. So if you know where Winnipeg is, I think it's about two hours from Grand Rapids. bit of an accent, but I won't make fun of it because that's just rude, first of all. But I can't tell either, I'm not, I just don't know that many different accents. I can just tell it's a little bit different, but it's not, you do have that upward inflection at the end, eh? You know, but you didn't say, eh, I'm not mocking. been in Florida and the lady's like, you're from Canada, right? And I'm like, yeah. Why? I'm like, was I saying, eh? She's like, yep. Apparently, we say it all the time, but it's not, you you don't notice it, Oh, no, no. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, it's part of our, part of us. Rick Moranis and Strange Brew. oh and of course Fargo, know. you know I could get in trouble for mocking Canadians or northerners and I don't want to do that either But let's talk a little bit more about Canadians, I don't know of too many Canadians that are storm chasers, but you do have your, I think Aaron's a Canadian as well, right? Aaron was originally from Colorado, so he, I think he was born raised in Colorado, and it was Michelle, who's a chaser from Manitoba as well, and they got together and now they're married and so he's living up in Bois of Wayne. So, yeah. Well, what about you? tell us a little bit about yourself Can you just kind of start from the beginning? Not all the way at the beginning, you know, like you glimmer in your dad's eye beginning, but you get it Yep. So I grew up in like I said, Thompson, Manitoba. So it's a northern, very remote town. you know, there's a highway, but it's, you know, eight hours to get to any major city. So Thompson is the major city there. So born and raised there, I think I left when I was 21. But, you know, I think it was originally the Wizard of Oz that kind of tweaked that that side of me that made me fear storms, I guess, and kind of made me fascinated with weather and tornadoes and especially lightning. Like I've always had a fascination with lightning. But I think it's that initial fear that got me interested, I would say. But I got a camera, like just one of those 35. I mean, I'm 50 now. So it's a 35 millimeter camera back in the day. And then I would always try to get storms and lightning, especially trying to get lightning. And up in Thompson, we didn't get a lot of that weather, because it's cooler up there than it is down in southern Manitoba. There's about a two week difference, and you don't get that moisture flow going all the way up there typically. But I did capture lightning, I want to say, when I was 12. So ever since then, just try to get try to get that shot and then digital cameras came out, moved to Winnipeg and yeah, it was 2007 when I, you know, was my, my ex and I were driving down the highway to go see my niece and Brandon and she was turning three and she's what 22 now at least. So, so, you know, it was a long time ago, but it was, we were just driving down in a week before that. I had told my friend, my best friend at work, I said, you know, I paid pay somebody $10,000 to go see a tornado. I didn't have $10,000 back then, but I was willing to pay it. And so a week later, I was in the car with my ex and we're going to see my niece and I'm like, is that a funnel cloud? And he's like, no, no, it's just a funny cloud. Sure enough, like in two minutes, it dropped down to the ground and it was Eli Canada's only F5 tornado. So, and then not only that we saw Like we kind of waited around and like there was golf ball sized hail I would say and so a lot of us were just pulled over and then we we kind of tried going again and we didn't know anything about storms and the movement of storms or anything like that so we didn't we weren't sure what to do. Did you have you your camera with you? So course I had my little point and shoot. And so I got photos and video and yeah, it was wild. And then we saw the Oakville tornado as well. So we had twins. So can't ask for anything better for your first tornado. It's hard to top. uh So yeah. Yeah. for me, seeing something like Pilger I think it's Pilger, but seeing something like Pilger and the twin twin tornadoes like that, twin EF-4s or whatever they were. Holy smoke. You know, I wouldn't want to see the destruction, but I would love to see two tornadoes out there like that. Is that how big those the ones you saw were? So Eli was an F5 and Oakville was an F3. So we were back on the F3. oh And after that, I mean, so you said you were shooting in 35 millimeter. By the way, the new generation will never know what this is. Click. Click. They'll never know that. They're like, what are you talking about? The 110. That was my first camera, the 110. And then of course the 35. You go, Oh, let me check. You know, when you open up the film midway, oops, you just ruined your entire roll of film. Yeah. just opened a camera because I'm like, well, like I have all these old cameras and I'm like, I'm not going to do anything with these or display them or anything. I'm just going to sell them and get rid of them. So I opened one up and sure enough it still had film in it. Like, whoops. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever captured? mean, I'd, if you have like links or something to your old stuff on film, I'd love to see some of those photos. I don't, you know what? I have them in boxes somewhere. I don't. Yeah, I know. I know. We have a Tucson photographer. he's actually a lightning scientist and he has gathered lightning photos from, you know, back in the 60s, 70s. And he's captured stuff on, I think, 1971. saw that was the year I was born. He's a really older guy and seen a picture of lightning from my year that I was born from, you know, from a camera that he took from on film. That's gonna be cool. I can't believe that you haven't shared that I bet you got some bangers I don't know. From what I remember, it was literally just a little bloop bloop in the sky. Like it wasn't anything. Who cares? bet photographers would love, would ooh and at seeing some of the stuff that's on film. Have you ever captured lightning on film before? That's a bucket list. I was like 12, when I was 12, like it was just in the backyard ISO 800 film shooting up. yeah. that's awesome. That's awesome. And so after all those years, so you've always been after the hunt. How did you learn to chase? know, going from, well, this is great. I'm a photographer, but now I want to apply that. There are a lot of people, and even now, that still don't really know how to apply that. Yeah, we watch convective chronicles. We listen to, hey, everybody, Trey here. Of course, we're going to learn all that stuff. We try to learn through osmosis. Yeah, sorry, Trey. I'm going to plug you every chance I get. Trey's amazing. I still remember when Trey was under a thousand on YouTube. like, everybody's got to sign up, like get him to a thousand. And I was just like, he's amazing. What he does for the community is amazing. Well, and Trey started Monsoon Con here in Arizona, too, before he even went to OU. So, you know, he he's always been just he's he's been a catalyst to get everybody else excited about weather and storms. And and the greatest part about that is someone dumb is as dumb as myself. And I'm not trying to to put myself down, but he keeps it at every level. Right. He's he has this great knowledge. But if you're someone new, he's not going to be like. You know, he doesn't roll his eyes or or anything like that. OK, enough enough praising Trey for the day. so, yeah, how did you go about, you know, incorporating and how did you become an actual storm chaser? Like where you felt like, I can do this and get after it. Yeah, in 2007 after seeing the tornado I bought myself my first DSLR So I'd been wanting kind of a bigger camera to be able to capture light lightning and everything so Bit the bullet and what's that? You're a Nikon girlie, right? See? You remember these things. D40X at the time. So, yeah. So I bought that and then just started learning about the camera and how to use it. And I think it was 2009, I got my first lightning, like really amazing lightning to me. Like it was, I was thrilled. Like I was jumping around for joy when I had it. And it was funny because I would just chase the radar basically. I'd pull the radar up and, look, a storm. And off I go and chase it and hopefully there's no rain when I've got the lightning. And up in Manitoba, we've got a lot of mosquitoes. So when I was shooting this, was shooting 30 second exposures. so I'd hit the shutter and then off I just do my little walk away and start walking back, hit the shutter again and keep walking and walking back because the mosquitoes were so bad. Yeah. Arizona come on wait till monsoon season You just you just let it you just let them feast if it's if it's that good of a shot or a scene You've got the mematis at sunset and bolts and you know, just a vast open desert or whatever Yeah, I'm like, you know I'm I'm sacrificing myself to the to the thunder gods for this one because you and I did I came home with my worst mosquito day had some of the most epic shots. So it's worth it, right? 100%. Yeah. And that's the thing, like you decide what is and what isn't, right? Never know. did you have to take any kind of storm spotter classes or anything or how did you? I did the storm spotter. did, um, I did lots of little things like that. Um, but you know, for me, I'm a, I'm a hands-on learner. Um, I, you know, I learn as I go, I'm more a photographer than I'd, I'd say a storm chaser. Um, but it's kind of melded now into, into more storm chaser than, than photographer. Um, kind of over the years, but, um, you know, for the first few years, I want to say till 2011, I took a U of M storm chasing class. And then we ended up going on a week long trip down to the States. And so it was fun. We didn't see any any real we didn't see any tornadoes. We saw some storms and we had some big hail and stuff like that. But You know, it was a little bit of learning and, you know, a lot of it was still over my head at the time. But it was a step into the learning. And then in 2015 and 2016, I went with Extreme Tornado Tours. And yeah, and I think it was 2016, we had 24 tornadoes in five days. And it was, yeah, it was insane. And we were super close to all of them. Like we were 50 to 100 meters from all of them. Like it was wild. And then from there, I just kind of learned as I went. And by that point, I had enough that I knew how to stay safe in the very least uh and keep my distance, stay out of the hail and that kind of thing. So I'm not a hail chaser. I'm not, unless I'm with somebody else in somebody else's vehicle, I don't want to damage my vehicle. forerunner, come on. Not preferably, I like my windows. I like keeping them and keeping all of my gear safe. too. You know, people talk about trying to save money on chases. Well, don't drive in the hail cores if you, you're not a chaser then. I, you know, I really hate the gatekeeping to the, there's, there's no levels. with all of the gear, like I've got like 15 grand worth of gear in my vehicle, like I can't afford to just replace that. Like if my windows get blasted out and they're damaged from water or whatever, or you know, debris coming in, I can't replace that. Right. You also can't replace this either. you know, that's the one thing there's no, there's no refund. There's no trade ins. There's no trade ups, nothing. Got to take care of that. That's, that's awesome. That, that over the time, over the years, you've been able to, to just slowly integrate. Do you feel like your level of, of risk has gone up as you've, as you've exponentially grown as a chaser it seems like the images that you consistently capture, there's a certain quality to it, but it's also you have a different composition in mind. You're going for composition. It almost like you said, it almost seems like you're going for the storm. but you're there to capture the fullness of the storm, is kind of my thing too. It doesn't mean I'm scared or anything, but you want to capture the full structure. You want to get on top of the car and the forerunner and get the stuff in the back, but you've also gotten some really incredible compositions. And that speaks more photographer than chaser to me. Thank you. yeah, and I think that's one thing I've noticed over the years as I've become more chaser than photographer is I'm getting less and less shots because I'm more after the chase than I am after the photo when before it was more after the photo than the storm. So it's, you know, right now I'm having a hard time finding the in-between like we had... tornado in Manitoba, I don't know if it was last year or the year before, but it was the year before and we had, we had like a rainbow and everything like it was the perfect, like I've never had a rainbow nato before, right? So seeing this rainbow nato, was like, wow, but my first inclination was I need to report this. So I took a small video of it without getting any photos or setting up my camera or anything like that yet, right? So it's Like I'm finding now it's trying to find that balance between reporting and being a chaser versus being the photographer. you know, I have, I, you know, I think now I'll set up my camera quickly because I always have it on the hand. All I have to do is literally just set it up, let it go off, you know, and then report. So, um or having somebody else with me helps too, but sometimes that doesn't always happen. So. Or is there a lot of chaser conversions in Canada? Nothing right. say no, but there's more and more every year. ah But we've got a lot of grid roads up here. it's one by one or one by twos. And so it's all gravel roads. So a lot of us are just going down the gravel roads and not sticking to the main. ah Yeah, you just still need to be careful because of rivers. But ah other than that, I know for myself, I try to stay, you two, three, four, five steps ahead um on the maps to know where I'm going and what's coming up. You touch on a topic that I think we're all, as every chaser is trying to do, is we're trying to find the balance, right? How close should I get? Can I get? uh We all, on, we're storm chasers. We live for the adrenaline. We're extreme, whatever you want. I'm trying to interview other people that are skydivers and things like that, and people who race vehicles. And we're all kind of cut. by the same cloth. We do love the adrenaline. We're adrenaline junkies whether we say where we are or not. Really? I will not go on a roller coaster. I will not jump out of a plane. Like, I will, you know, the adrenaline coming from the Gary tornado, I personally didn't like it. I'm not an adrenaline junkie. No. No. So like, I'm very low key. I'm a computer analyst. I'm not, you know what I mean? Like, I don't, this is the only risky-ish type thing I do, but I find... with chasing, you know, I keep myself safe. I know how to keep myself safe and that was part of the learning of it. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. me in law enforcement. That's everything that we do. Oh, you're in law enforcement. Oh, no, you could. Yeah, it's possible that I might not come home each and every day. But I train. Everything is the same. I train. Repetition and on-the-job experience and taking mitigated risks. You don't go try to search a house that's, you know, an abandoned house where there is reported there's three bad guys in there by yourself. You're going to wait for backup. You know, you're going to do those things. You're going to mitigate risk. Storm chasing is all about mitigated risk. Yeah, well, I find with storms, like for me, it's the beauty of the storm. it's the same thing with Aurora. Like it's Mother Nature at its finest and worst, I guess. But just the beauty that it brings, like the skies, like when the sun's setting and you've got lightning and structure, it's, you know, you can't, to me, you can't ask for anything better. Like it's my calm. to everything else in life. Like everything else is so fast paced and to me going for a drive it's relaxing. Going and seeing the beauty that Mother Nature has it brings me peace. I'm smirking for the very reason that that's the essence of what the storm before the calm is. People, you know, don't know if they think I'm dyslexic or something, but I inverted it for that very reason. When you're at the storm, for me, yes, I do jump and do an Irish jig and I do all the crazy stuff. That's me. I act like a kid when I see something. I'll cry when I saw my tornado last year, my one tornado out of the four days I got to chase last year on the plains, you know, but hey. I don't care. I just don't care if people think that I'm dorky or child. I don't care because I'm in the moment. And I think you described that well is you're there for that piece, that moment. You're there for the fix, basically, you know, not necessarily the adrenaline, but the fix itself. So. Shannon, could you share one of your most memorable experiences you had while chasing extreme weather and it could be it could be the you get so many opportunities to really capture some of the most vivid auroras as well. So it could be that or could be a tornado or something but share with us one of your most just memorable if you could. there's a lot of memorable ones. I will pull up my most recent one, which was Gary, South Dakota. It was, I think, The year before I went, April 26th for all those tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa. And that was my first time chasing on my own in the US. ah I'd always kind of partnered up with somebody in the US prior to that, but this was my first time and I had made a lot of mistakes and I was really down on myself for that chase. I saw seven tornadoes, I helped somebody, pulled somebody from a basement. like, it just, it was, you know, it was one of those chases where I left feeling not the best, right? And it was my first one. So then Gary, South Dakota, like I had gone for some chases earlier on in the year. And then I saw the setup on this one. And, you know, I reached out to a couple people, nobody could kind of get away. So I'm like, okay, I'll, you know, this I want, I have a gut feeling about this one. So I'm gonna go. So I think I had left at nine in the morning or something that morning, got there. and I had pulled up to a gas station and a lot of the time like for chases, you know, I'll talk with friends about some of the parameters and kind of what looks better and that kind of a thing. you know, I've always had some self doubt about my own forecasting. you know, this time it was, it was all on my own, ended up going down towards the target and stopped at a gas station. I saw Ricky Forbes and like there was the ice trucks there. So, ice chip trucks I guess um and so yeah so it was yeah yeah yeah so it was one of those times where I was feeling good about about my forecast I'm like okay everybody's here like you know I'm half an hour from my target so you know I must be in the right place so so I had heard them saying that they were gonna go north or east or something like that and I'm like That's not what I'm seeing. so then I started self doubting myself again, right. And then shortly after that, you know, I kind of parked it, I went a little bit further south, and then parked it and I'm like, saw the storm starting to fire. I'm like, Nope, this is my storm, I'm going for it. So I was maybe 20 minutes from from it when it first fired up. um So race down there, saw the first tornado saw it kind of as it you know, the the mesocyclone was was trying to produce another another tornado and there was a little funnel little nipple hanging from it and um so it ended up going on to to keep producing kind of rain wrapped and I'm like, well, rain wrapped isn't my thing. I'm not going into the core of it. So um and then that's when I noticed on radar that, you know, another storm had fired to the west of it and it had rotation on it. So I'm like, screw this off. I went back. I got like the perfect spot. I sat there and watched the wall cloud. I watched all the chasers like five, 10 minutes after I got there come pouring and streaming down as the tornado is coming down. I've like, I've got, ah you know, I set up a time-lapse of it. So, you know, you can see Reed and all these other chasers that are going after it. So, yeah, I'm like, I was one of the first ones here. So, you know, it was one of those things that it, you know, I felt good about my forecasting. I felt good about my decisions. And I think for that entire thing, I maybe moved two miles. Like, you know, but from the first time I was set up, I left, came back, it was maybe two miles. Like it was absolutely awesome. Like I didn't have to do much driving. So I just sat up there for maybe half an hour and then it started coming in closer to me. Because I was probably about a half a mile down from the house that got hit. So right before right as it was hitting that house, I ended up taken off and going a little bit further down. And that's where I got my nice little pee spot. So I managed to get between some brush and I parked in a little bit of a field and there was like a little road that went straight down so there was brush and trees on this side and I'm like, I'm going in and I had beautiful view of a tornado while I went to the bathroom and it was awesome. So yeah, that was... tricky. That is tricky when you're out on the chase. Guys, it's a lot easier. they can... Guys just don't care either. You'll be driving like, wow, he's not trying to go for a bush or anything. He's just letting her rip. But you described, you you described this memorable experience, not just because the tornado is amazing. This is what I love about it. You integrated, was the doubt, overcoming the doubt. It was overcoming your own fears, your own forecasting, watching others go, I'm going this way. And you're going, oh man, their experience, they know what they're doing. Do I trust my gut or do I listen to them? And that's okay too, you know? mean, those guys are incredible in their own forecasting. So it's never a dist about anybody else. This is about you. And the way that you describe that is that You know, you really put, you really put us in the driver's seat in that experience because it's, it's much more than the tornado. You, bet you can remember the turns and I'd skip. I had a really great. Experience getting a chance to interview skip Talbot, you know a few episodes back and he was telling me that They're most of his tornadoes most of his big chases. He remembers turning corners He remembers the streets that he went down while while on the chase and he really described You know the essence of the chase It's not just well I got to the Gary tornado and it was just the most amazing thing. You've seen the photos There's hundreds of people around this tornado or you dozens of people and it was so long lived people who don't know what storm chasing entails, they need to learn that. They need to experience that for themselves too. I like also that you put yourself in a position of learning by starting off, not necessarily starting off, but by also joining the Extreme Tornado Tours. Do you feel like that was for people who've never done that and want to do that? You feel like that's a really safe and perfect option for someone to learn the ropes before doing it themselves?% because you know, there's a lot that the forecasting that they do and the decision making that they're doing as they're chasing, and they verbalize that it's it's great to learn from that. And it's and it's being in the experience and understanding the storms and seeing visually what's going on and having somebody with experience explain that right. So 100 % nothing like experiencing it when somebody else has that. They have someone else's safety in mind as well, but at the same time, watching someone with that experience. I feel so much more confident to get out onto the plains and not just chase the monsoon. Monsoon is beautiful, it has its own dangers, but it really is a great experience to get out there. For you, you've always, I guess the plains continue up into Canada. How often do you get a chance to chase into Canada? Because we need to get that moisture right. It's still the same plume of Gulf moisture essentially that rides up across the plains and into Canada. Have you seen that, that if that had, it seems to me, let me start that again. It seems to me that that plume is not making it up over at least over the last two years. We don't see the high plains really coming alive quite often. Yeah, so the reason why it hasn't come up is because of all the forest fires that we've had and the smoke. So the last two years especially have been really bad, like 2021, I think I saw one storm. because of all the smoke that was in the air and it was inhibiting all of that moisture and the instability to rise, right? So, you know, last year we actually saw storms that became tornado warned, but you could see that smoke getting pulled into the inflow and then it just killing the storm. It was wild to watch. And, you know, like I'd love to put a time lapse together on it because... it was wild to watch and just what that smoke does to a storm, right? So I'm really hoping this year we don't have forest fires and the smoke that we have had the last couple of years, but unfortunately climate change and everything else, it's unfortunately. I mean, that's interesting. And I'm coming from the perspective of someone who really doesn't know much about Canadian climatology. I know the US is currently, the West is currently in a long-term drought and the EMLs are going to probably be. So far, you know, we've seen some storms out on the plains, but we'll see how that affects and impacts storm chasing season into May and June. But I want to know, is Canada under a severe drought still or a long-term drought? I know I say Canada, but are parts of Canada, especially in the plains? Yeah, I would say parts. Like I know where I am here. Like I've got huge cracks in the ground where I am in Portage-le-Prairie. Some areas, not so much. So it all depends on the little pockets, right? Same with Saskatchewan. Some areas have lots of moisture, others don't. So it's, you know, it kind of depends on how much snow they've had, how much... you rain they had from the previous fall, yeah, fall, summer, fall time. I know we had here, we were like so dry, had 123 millimeters in one night. Like, you know, it's, it's, it's kind of that, that feast or famine, right? Like it's, some people get more, some people don't get as much. So unfortunately, but yeah, I think we're I think with climate change, the other thing that we're seeing too is extremes, right? So you'll have extreme drought and then extreme flooding. So it doesn't seem to have that nice balance that we did once upon a time ago. You haven't let that disrupt your desire to chase them. You continue to persevere, you continue to get out there. How many years would you say that you've officially been chasing storms? I want to say officially chasing, you know, I want to say 2008 was when I was kind of chasing radar. Officially chasing, I would say more 2017 and forward. So, yeah. That's amazing and you continue to persevere through that. What role does perseverance, know, what role has perseverance played in your pursuit of extreme weather? Um, I think it's more overcoming challenges. Um, you know, always learning something from a chase. That's one of the things like, I think in 2024, when I was on those, um, those tornadoes in, in April there, uh, in Iowa, uh, you know, it was I beat myself up a lot about it. And I think that was the last year that I've really done that because it's like, you know what, I'll make mistakes, I'll learn from it and move on, right? And I take that going into my next chase. I think it was, was it that year or 2023? My friend Corey and I were going chasing and we had a, you know, a little area that we were gonna chase in. and you know it had a good setup like it it looked like it was good it was going to go off there was a storm that had fired about three and a half hours north of there in Saskatchewan and it had produced I think two tornadoes you know the hurr said it was going to you know dissipate and disappear and then these bottom ones were going to pop up right so it's like okay well you know things are looking better here so we ended up going west and we were joking on the way to our our target spot that you know we're going to get the whole Holy grail today, we're gonna have a tornado. It's gonna be at sunset. It's gonna be over a canola field. And we're gonna have amazing structure. so the storm that was north ended up keep going, it kept continuing and we were seeing pictures from everybody where our target in the south looked like absolute garbage. It was capped, it wasn't doing anything. So it's like screw it, let's go north and. I think in an hour and a half, it took us to get there. was I was ready to quit storm chasing. And I'm like, I don't like that feeling like I'm that's not me. And so I think since then, and since the the 2024 Iowa tornadoes, it was, you know, learn something from it, use it in your next chase and move forward. You know, don't lose that passion. And I think that's where things were going was I was losing that passion. And Yeah, so that's kind of where I'm at now. And it's just I take something from every storm chase now. And it's like, what did I learn? What do I need to do better? Or, you know, think about as I'm going into the chase day or whatever the case may be, right? Because no chase is perfect. You know, there's little mistakes that happen all the time. So yourself to really high expectations though? I am so, like people are gonna be like, that was a great shot, Lori, can't believe you got, you were in the right place. And I'm driving home like, God, I suck. God, this sucks. What am I doing? It sucks. Everything I do sucks. And I'm just so freaking hard on myself. You can't. and a half, I just, I don't know, like as I've gotten older, I think I hit my 50. And it was just like, you know, I've lived an amazing life. Like I always say, whenever I go out shooting lightning and stuff, if I get struck by lightning and die, I've died happy. I died doing what I love doing, right? And, and it's, I think I take that now. as I go forward, it's just like, I've lived a good life to this point. Anything else is gravy, you know, I, you know, we all beat ourselves up to a certain degree. And that's, you know, over the last, I don't know, like three, four years now, like I've been, I've been doing a lot of self reflection. And, you know, because I don't want to say becoming a better person, but I am, but I'm becoming kinder to myself as well. um So I think that's what's important is, you know, yeah, you screwed up, but what did you learn from it? Right? What are you going to do next time that you're going to, you know, not do that again, right? Or do better, right? Like, like, so you've learned to the little devil and the little angel for me. I've always explained it that way. You learn to kind of flick that little guy off off your shoulder finally after I mean, we all battle with that to a certain degree, but at the same time, you, you, go, okay, well, what did I do well, right, and try to focus on on that, right. So I think age and experience, in addition to experience, but age also gets us part the way, right? We reflect on our past and we're like, all of that stuff was BS. I didn't have to worry about it. learned as I might have failed, but I didn't fail. I fell forward, right? I might have fallen, but I fell forward. em I don't know. I know it's tacky to use those. I mean, even above, can't see it because. Find joy in the journey. saw the stupid, let me see, I can't point up there, but I a stupid little Walmart little frames that I put up there. And I saw it, well, $3. And I was like, find joy in the journey. And I'm like, that is so tacky. then I sat on it like, man, I found so much joy in this journey. So much reason for gratitude. And that's just the way it is and getting back to what you said, you know, you having had a good life even up to now, um my buddy Chris, I told Chris, over the past few months, we've seen some really pretty cool lightning. He's like, do I get in the car? I'm like, yeah, you might want to. You know what to put on my epitaph. What's to tell him? goes, yep. And he says, he says it instead of me now, he'll go, she had a good run. I was just like, well, if I, if I get domed by a bolt, he's like, Lori said, and of course she had a good run. Just put that on there. It's good. So yeah, kind of, it kind of applies there as well. Have you had a, you know, switching gears a little bit, going back to, to some of the stuff that you've, before you were a storm chaser and, and as you grew into who you are today. Have you had any moments of adversity that you had to really overcome? Whether it was as a kid or with parents, did you have a really good family that was supportive? Or what kind of speed bumps? I've had a good life. I've got a good job. I've had amazing friends. I've had an amazing family that supports me. And that's one thing. I want to say that I'm privileged that way. I'm very grateful. What's that? Blessed. I mean, to be blessed that way. Yeah. that's the one thing, you know, that's, that's allowed me to do what I've, I've done and where I've gone and what you know, all of that. I think the the biggest adversity that I think I've overcome, I'm gonna try not to tear up here, but I think is is putting me first, in a lot of cases. And, you know, again, doing that inner work to you know, to make myself a better person. Like I've always, I've always been empathetic and, and, you know, put everybody else above me. So that's one thing is, is, you know, learning your, your importance and, you know, how to, how to put you first and, what, what you deserve, right? What I deserve, right? So that's one of the biggest things I'd say over the past, know, it's kind of been since COVID times where there's been a lot of mental health and, you know, it's understanding me better and putting myself first. yeah, like even in the family situation, right? Like I've always been... the youngest of the group and not taken seriously throughout childhood and stuff like that and even growing up, right? Like it was always do what everybody else wants to do. And Shannon doesn't get a say. Well, not anymore. I've got my voice and I know what I want and I'm going for it. you deserve to take up space. I think that's something like that you and I have had to learn, especially as Gen Xers, And I think for those of us that had to grow up in that era, think we had to learn to do kind of so much on our own, even with siblings. I was the youngest as well, but. I still had to learn to do it all. There was nobody there to really show me. I was there to get picked on by my older brothers. So they kind of built some resilience in me as well. So I guess that gave me the push I needed to be in law enforcement and not take crap when there was a threat. But at the same time, yeah, we really have to do the work, isn't it? It's kind of hard to put that work in for ourselves to make us more resilient. Do you find yourself? Do you find yourself feeling gratitude that that that welling up of resilience has built up over time? 100%, 100%. And, you know, when you talk about, you know, overcoming stuff and, and, like, I think the last few years, especially after the whole NFT thing, like, I did a lot of, I know, but it's, it's something that was that I found interesting, because it, it took away some of my joy. Mm-hmm. you know, and part of the reason of why I got into photography, like I do it for me, like it's my, like it's my piece when I go out into the field and get that, right. but that took something away. Like it was just like, I'm not important, right. you know, like I've, I've got, I thought I had some nice photos, but nobody else seems to think so. Right. But it was the space and that, and it was, so, you know, I've moved more again. realizing what that was and moving forward and this is me, this is what I deserve and you know, and getting back to why I take photos for me, right? It's 100%, 100%. So that's all coming back now and you know, it's, yeah, yeah. Because you've always been that supportive person, there's so many people I just see online that are going through this. They're experiencing the same things and they end up making the same mistakes. They give in to the self-doubt and the self-worth, the lack of self-worth. And there's like, you know, but they suffer in silence. They don't share that with others, you know, and I'm just grateful. people do. Like, I don't, I think that's just human nature. That, like, it's, I think it's something that you have to grow up with and have that confidence. To begin with, I think maybe I don't know, like, I'd love to talk to people who don't experience that. And the childhood and their upbringing of, I don't know, the whole psychology behind it is pretty, pretty cool. So yeah. think that, do you think people nowadays, even in the Chaser community, do you think that they feel more alone than as a community? I think so. look at stuff that goes on and I've been involved in some drama and it's just like, I can't stand drama. It's triggering to me so whenever I see any kind of drama, I back away. And that's why I'm so quiet online half of the time because it's like, I don't want to be a part of any of that drama. It's literally triggering for me. So it's just, you just rot, isn't it? It's like you're, like a piece of you starts to rot when you, when you get into that. Yeah, you might have fun, but for a, for a second, you know, yeah, let me get into this and everything. I just remember, you know, a spat that I got into and someone who followed me and somebody else were like, you know, I really have been following you guys because I love your work. I love your work, but it really depresses me when I see you guys fighting each other and it.% it brings me sadness. And it was a, it was a private message and it broke me. It really, really broke. I was like, what the heck am I doing? Even caring about what do the people think about what I do or, or feeling the need to, Oh, you know what? Having my, my siblings, I'll admit, you know, the need to defend myself. You see, you see chasers do that. Come on, pull up and this and that. And it's, it's horse crap you know, you don't need to do that. So something we learned about in that space. before is moving with intention. I want to do that and I don't want to waste any more time in the drama or anything else. And that's why I love. the thing that I find is that because I'm empathetic, I feel bad for somebody. And then, you know, like, yeah, I won't even go into details. But yeah, like, it's just like one thing led to another. And all of a sudden, that good friend is no longer a friend anymore. It's like, okay, like, what the hell happened? Like, I'm like, I stood up for somebody and, and okay, you know, yeah, yeah, it's just like, so I'm, I'm just turning myself off, like from social media, for the most part, like, Sure. Especially the drama like it's just like I don't you know It's it's upsetting. It's it's depressing Yeah loves it. It gets clicks. Elon has really worked that, he's worked that algorithm to if you want clicks, if you want follows, you want all that. I would like to go over a few photos before we, we peace out here if you don't mind. And I'm just going to pull these up here. What would you say while I'm bringing these up, what would you say to those younger generation, youth, what would you speak to them as far as overcoming the stuff that they're going through to get to find their confidence that they need to get out there and do it themselves? Yeah, like a, don't be overconfident, because you don't know what you don't know. And you don't know a lot. um Learn from others, you know, reach out like there's a lot of chasers out there who have, you know, the, you know, the experience and everything and are willing to, you know, to reach out, right, and answer questions and be there for others. but do the due diligence and do your learning. ah You know, don't expect to just hop in with somebody and, you know, not and learn everything right like 100 % 100 % yeah. But it comes from us putting the work in comes from a position where you finally find the self dignity, the self respect to say, I can do this. I will do this. I'm going to fail. I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm going to go forward because it's what I'm passionate about. Don't worry about making mistakes. Do it. The people that that sit on the sit on the sidelines and never actually jump into the ring. You know, it's live your dream. find a way to do it and you'll get there. Yeah. I love it. love it. And speaking of, look at this, man. Okay, so I'm going to let you explain these just so we can wrap this up. you know what? This is Gary. I was going to say, I love this. You know what? When I saw this photo, I love the RFD cut where you can look up into the core there and it's just, mm-mm-mm. Like for me, it's just tasty. Those are the adjectives I use. It was delicious. But you have... that base is over on the right hand side there, that's where the Gary tornado started. ah It was pretty much over there, there was a wall club, and then it just kind of moved it moved over and yeah, and then became that. ah But yeah, I just I took a step back and took a picture with my truck, so I think I was there for just over a half an hour taking a time lapse of the entire thing. my gosh, have you released that time lapse? No, because I'm struggling with it. Yeah. Yeah, I need to get the newest uh LR time-lapse. I think that's what my issue is, is that I'm on an old version 5, so it just is messing with it. So I think I just need to reset it all back to 1 and get the new version. Um, actually I think it's going to be the Adobe, what to call the, the, the DNG converter here. I'm like, it's not even showing you the LR time-lapse here. Cause I'm not sharing the window, but, it's the, and it's the Adobe DNG converter. All right, so you mentioned LR time-lapse. For those of you who don't know, LR time-lapse is an application. It's software that will help you generate a really crisp, smooth uh time lapse. It won't stabilize your video, but it will uh ramp up your exposure settings and everything, especially if a day to night, what is that called, the Holy Grail. So if you have that day and night sequence trying to capture the right exposure, LR Timelapse will create your timelapse for you and actually balance out all the white balances and settings through that using Lightroom and LR Timelapse. uh So what she's talking about, what you're talking about, Shannon, is that you're having problems with that. I think it's the Adobe DNG converter, because all the new Adobe stuff is just trying to bog down my older computer too. I don't know, maybe that's what it is, is that DNG converter. uh bit of AI to do the sky versus the foreground and kind of do specific settings there, and it wasn't liking that at all, so. I don't use that. still use the LR time lapse, know, the split where you can grab, yeah, the gradients. Yeah, I use those to do that. And I only use that because it seems like it gets wonky. It creates a weird time lapse as well. So yeah, that happens, but I still want to see it. So you're going to have to do something. have to get with the program because you don't go out there, capture these beautiful time lapses and not share it with the world. it's been forever since I've done a time lapse, but yeah. Good time. And do you have a name for your forerunner? my license plate is Stormtroop. Um, Stormtroop, Stormtrooper, yep. um that's Black and white. from Tom Smetana, uh I actually had a vision with this and I've pretty much done most of the work on this myself. So um like I changed the the handles out to be black. I've got as you can see, there's a little tornado on my above my trail. So I put the trail and the tornado on it and the roof rack and the ladder and the wheels. That's all me. And then I Are those MTs? those mud terrains or are those all terrains? um That is the KO2s. Yeah. Yeah, thanks. all black. I got the TRD rims, but... Sorry, fangirling on Toyota stuff. But that was a great shot. I love the composition and I love the fact that, you you step back and you got something unique about it too, but I'm sure you, because this is personal to you, the truck is also personal to you as well. I love this shot. This is fricking, I know the girls who chase uses this as their profile a lot, but I fricking want a shot like this, but. That one would probably be me getting domed. It'd be like, oh, here's Lori getting struck by lightning. You'll see the upward leaders, the upward streamers going up to meet the bolts and it'll be lights out. this was kind of my vision when I bought my truck was to get a shot like this, A with the tornado and uh this one with the lightning. um there was, yeah, like it was, this is a composite. there was, I was waiting for the lightning and I did get a couple with me on there like that. But um I think I ended up having to put two together because I had already gotten down from there. um this was a better. better lightning bolt anyways and yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then it was just like slowly slink down. So yeah, the friends that were with me they were like, like, this is a Darwin moment. I'm like, yeah, well, yeah, sometimes we do stupid stuff. But yeah, flip flops. Yeah, I don't chase in flip flops anymore. I learned my lesson and my friend had judgmental there. Sorry. That's to demerits this. I've seen this shot. One of my all time favorite shots. It's just who I mean, I got my shot that's similar. Huh? The GIF that I created out of this. Like I've got it on that little liquid crystal display or whatever where it's spinning. Oh, I love it. You create, isn't that on Twitter? You can actually pull that up, right? When you type in supercell. off of my main, my main pinned one now, but yeah. Where was this? Was this in Canada? Saskatchewan, yeah, was tornado warned at the time that it was doing this and then yeah, ended up getting ourselves into a little bit of trouble afterwards. yeah, we're pretty sure that there was a tornado. ah Data was bad. Like the radar scan hadn't updated it. The radar or the hail didn't look too bad. So we ended up hunkering down. We were going to go chase it a little bit further and then the road ended up being crap. And yeah, we ended up we're pretty sure that there was a tornado just. just north of us. because like the winds were shifting all over the place, I was parked in between two grain bins and I could see the grain bin in front of me kind of lifting up and it was, yeah, yeah, it was a little sketchy. Yeah, we had the ghost train going through with us. So yeah, we were close to something. Yeah. Now, when I know I've learned, thank you, Skip Talbot, I have learned storm spotting and I've watched those videos over and over. So I know when I see ghost, when I see chasers driving and you see that little inflow band of just that little rain wrap, that little spin of rain shooting into it. Also, I love this. I love the inflow here. uh Just the clouds just moving in with the inflow. I just, you know, I'm able to, as I get more experience. I'm like talking to Dr. Cameron and and just so many others like man I now I know what this is like this laminar stuff and why dry air is actually getting entrained into the the mid levels and uh anyways I'm a nerd but I'm I'm such a I have so much to learn and other chasers like duh yeah we've known that for years dummy but no I had some really good um videos coming out recently to you. don't know if they're new or old, but one popped up recently and it was just like, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what do we got here? Got the Mams going. City Day. it was after seeing, what was it, 12 tornadoes. Dodge City, we had three tornadoes on the ground at once. This was kind of the aftermath. All of us were just kind of buzzing from the day. And then this mematis happened and we were in a parking lot and they said, well, you know, do you want to go out for photos or do you want to buy alcohol? And I'm like, here's $25, get my alcohol. I'm coming to shoot photos. I got a little bit of both. So it was and I got a I got a booter for this one I got. So this was a mud puddle. And yeah, my one sneaker was completely covered in in uh mud and and it was soaked. Yeah. Yeah, it was worth it. It was so worth it. I was going to say this is really good, momentous reflection and everything, but then you describe the whole story about it. And to me, that's why I want these kinds of photos. Like it's a really great photo, but it's not as great until you tell me the story behind it. And that I love it. and all the memories that come along with it. And that's what I mean by, you know, you know, getting out and just going for the chase and it's the experience. My biggest favorite photo is see that one back there. I mean, because I and I share it all the time and it's it's my biggest, baddest, most awesomest lightning photo. And I don't think I still I don't think I beat it. I've I've had I've had other shots that that I'm really proud of that I've really tried for my six year shot and all that stuff. But I just love the colors in this one and I want to replicate that someday. Yeah. You will. you know, I can tell you the whole story behind it too. And now talking about laminar stacks. Look at this pancake. Yeah, so this one was South Dakota, or sorry, North Dakota. So this was a day where it um it reminded me a lot of, what was that town in Manitoba? shoot there's a big tornado, can never remember the town though, south of Verdon, Scarth, Scarth, Manitoba. So that day I didn't actually go out for the tornado that day, I had a migraine and then I'm like the data wasn't looking the best, so it was kind of wishy washy, if it went, it would have been okay. um And this day reminded me of that day. And it was one of those learning lessons that, okay, this is what the parameters were, this is what it did. um And this is exactly what happened. So um it was one of those things where it was going to be skirting along the border and then heading down into the US. And it was leading up to all the parameters being right at the border. um in Canada, we've got um one border on the Saskatchewan side. and two on the Manitoba side that were kind of within the range. uh But all the other borders were closed. So it was making a decision to go over the border beforehand or um kind of or wait until you're over in the Saskatchewan side. So I decided to go down early and head down uh one of the closed borders. I think they closed at like four or five. Like it's just stupid. um But so I ended up going down and a couple of other chasers, um Shelly and Dan Heinrichs were with me as well. ah And they were following behind me and we were just going through and so it was so fast. There was a bunch of Canadian chasers on the Canada side and nobody could really make it down because of where it had ended up. It was still kind of meh, like very meh. ah at just as it crossed the border, but I want to say within 15 minutes of it crossing the border, it went bam. Like it just exploded and became like this. It ended up becoming tornado warned. um We ended up getting like two and a half inch hail. Like I was doing, I don't even want to say how fast I was going, but I was going down a gravel road. um And yeah, like it was hard to stay ahead of this thing. um Like we saw a Gusnado, like we didn't see any, like I don't think there was a tornado that dropped from it, but it was, wow. It was uh crazy. Yep, yep. Looking at the edges, can tell it's a pano. How many shots? Nine. Were you shooting vertical and going sideways, like from here to here? Wow. Yeah, that was a wild day. And then think this is the last one. Oops. Yeah. first tornado. So that's the Eli tornado as it dissipated and that's the Oakville tornado on the left. And it was quite a ways in the distance. where you just like completely lose, you weren't losing your mind. You were all calm and you're like just taking it in like, wow, this is cool. So I'm always very serious and very, like I'm an analyst, so I get, you know, I go down to the detail of things, right? And I'm a big worry wart. um This was the only time that um I was not worried and my partner was more worried than me. So. um in relatively, I wouldn't keep driving in that direction, especially if I didn't know which. the vehicle. I was ready to just be in it. Like it was, yeah, it was wild. Yeah, we had to turn around at one point. What's that? Honestly, I think and I see this, I'm seeing this happen more and more and no one's going to listen to me. Nobody gives an S about this, but the light, the bug light tends to go on when we get closer to the storm. We, and I see chasers doing this even more and more so now. And now we're seeing spin ups all around everybody. And I'm just so worried that, that people are giving into that and to the, Ooh, you know. What is it the bugs life like stop stop don't go to the light, but it's so pretty and then they hit the and that's what's happening with the storm chase community. I really hate to say it. Judge me or not, but I'm so worried that one of these tornadoes is going to quickly expand and going from a know 80 mile an hour 80 to 120 mile an hour. uh You know low end tornadoes going to suddenly ramp up and it's cars are going to be flying and people are going to be hurt. Really, really worried that that's where we're headed and nobody's. Nobody seems to listen or when you do try to sound the alarm, everyone's like, you're just scared, you're just dumb, you don't know what you're doing. especially when you get into the chaser convergence, like in Gary, like I was keeping my distance from Gary, um you know, because I don't feel comfortable being super close. I don't want to be in the rain and the hail. That's not my thing. I want to be able to take pictures and keep my camera dry and safe. Right. um And but I think you're right, like with with how close people are getting nowadays. And especially people who don't know how to read the storm and read tornado of where it's going, what it's doing, know, like sitting with Mike Scanlon, like he's, he knows exactly what's happening with that storm. You know, like, there's this happening over here. And this is happening over here. Like we need to go because this, you know, like he knows how to read the storm. For a lot of these new chasers who don't have the experience, it's, you know, you can have all the book smarts you want. But, you know, you don't know what that storm is doing. It's, you know, it's unpredictable. And you're not in a dominator. You're not in a... exactly. you know, like I know, in a couple of cases when I was chasing, like trying to break through some of that chaser convergence so you can get the heck out of there. Like I'm one of those people that it's like, I want to be one of the first ones out. So I don't have to stress about that. I don't like stress. I'm here for the, for the calm, right? I'm here for the peace, not being in the middle of chaser convergence. um say it though, that that, but that whatever you want to call it, bro culture or whatever it is, but the, just the hubris, there's hubris involved in it. And people are like, well, you're just chicken then, or you're just, you know, you don't have what it takes to do what we do. I like, it has nothing to do with that, but Hey man, you know, talking to Dr. Persoff talking to him recently, he's the same things like he responded talking about people being de-gloved in tornadoes when he responded to the Joplin tornado and to watching people coming up on him that when he was trying to treat them, you know, he'd stopped the chase and all of a he was working in the hospital there and he had gloves on, but his gloves were getting shredded because there was glass and bits in people's arms. And he's like, why am I getting cut? And it's because the people had been impaled so badly that even their skin was, you know, just had debris inside it. And I don't think that we've really seen the destructive forces of tornadoes lately since El Reno and maybe some of the other big ones, but I just worry. I worry too much and. it's interesting you say that because, you know, it's What was it in on the Iowa storm? Like a lot of chasers had had like there's the big river there or the lake or whatever. I think it's the river and there's two bridges, one that goes north and one that goes south. So when I first came up to the storm, the storm, there was a tornado on the ground and I was worried that if I went north, I was going to get caught. So I ended up going south, ended up seeing another. I can't even remember the name of the town, but there was another tornado that ended up crossing there and coming across and because I took the southern route, I was one of the first ones on scene and had found like a house was completely stripped off. Like all that was left was the basement and luckily we were pulling the lady out of the basement and she was okay, mostly okay. So, you know, when you see that destruction and see what it can do. I don't know, to me it brings a different sense of the destruction of it and making sure that I stay safe, but I'm there for others in case, you know, I need to be, right? So I've got my first aid training. I usually carry an AED with me. Like I make sure that all of that's there. The one lesson I did learn from that is to, cause that's the first search and rescue that I've done where I actually found somebody, is to actually carry your first aid kit. in your backpack like in a backpack and take your backpack with you. That's one thing I learned. So I do that going forward now. so you're not having to run back to the car and try to fish out something. yeah, yeah. And that's interesting to you because talking to Dr. Persoff, he's not an advocate for people getting into deeper first aid or deeper search and rescue just because of the fact that they can often, and that what he's seen is that they often make the problem worse or they become a victim themselves. With whatever it is, stepping on nails or things like that, or making a situation worse where they're not experienced to move somebody. It's an interesting position where we have to all have to develop our own code and come up with what we're willing to do. I already know what I'm going to do. I've already done that as part of my career and I know what I'm comfortable doing. I know my limitations too. I know when it's time to just be a support to someone that might be at the end of their life and just not try to hurt them anymore, but to just support them, call 911 and to be there with them. Heaven helps us that we have to be in that situation this year and hopefully it's preventable and people are safe in their places with all the warnings out there. But that was really fun. I'm really glad I got a chance to chat with you on this. And my gosh, please, please, please let me know when Canada is going to open up for a chasing. I just got my passport and I'm ready to. uh This girl's ready to whirl, you know, I'm ready to get up there and chase some storms. So I'm really eager. I would love seeing those photos that you've captured and seeing all the other images that you've captured along with your Aurora shots, which we didn't even get into. mean, my goodness, you are also an incredible Aurora. The compositions you get with the auroras too and the colors and even the editing that you do, the editing stuff. Yes, you talked about that earlier that, you know, You know, you're like, I'm proud of my work. I, and then you put it out there and like, what? doesn't, there's a, it's all dead. You know, nobody likes my stuff. And it's not like, yeah, absolutely. bring back those good memories for me. I think it's so essential that we stop putting any kind of faith into thinking that people online are the arbiter of what's beautiful and extraordinary when it comes to photographers, right? Cause I'll post the the crappiest photo with my phone sideways and there's a Taco bell sign and whatever. And there might be a little bolt in it or something. And all of a sudden, you know, Oh my God, you know, 50,000 likes and I'm like, hell and then I'll but here's the real shot that I got and you share that later and like 10 like you're like whatever if I one I just spent three hours editing. If you think that likes and follows and people in any other space, just because they say they're an artiste and you think that they're the arbiter of what's good, you need to look again. You need to find the joy in your own images and the pride in the shots that you do. So anyways. that's one thing as well that I've always said, know, like, you know, my, my images are always vivid. They're always, you know, I had one person unfollow me and send me a nasty message because they're like, well, that's not what it looked like in real life. And I'm like, that's the one thing that I do is when I take a shot, I'm taking a photo of what I see in my head when I'm in that scene. So all the photos that you saw, that's what I saw, right? So that's vivid in my head when I see it, like, you know, camera doesn't capture what I see. I'm pulling out what I saw, if that makes sense. And if nobody likes that, fine. It's me that matters. raw file either. I mean, you have to put your artistic expression on it also. And I go back and forth. I go back and forth some year. I go back to 2023. I'm like, oh my gosh, what did I do with my editing? I didn't go back. And then 2024, I'm like, oh, I'm trying to keep it more natural, a little more subdued, but I still love a good pop. I still love it. Not crunch, but a good contrast. your stuff your stuff, right? So when somebody posts something online, you know that it's yours and I can like I can pick your stuff out, right? And that's that's what's important. um And, you know, as an artist, I guess. But again, like coming back to, you know, I do this for me and my piece and my passion, I guess. And if somebody loves it, great. If they don't, great, too. You can just walk away and not like it. That's fine. I, know. Because your self-worth isn't dependent on what that other person says. Some unknown Joe Schmo on the internet thinks of you or your work. Exactly. I love it. it's hurt when when I saw somebody that I looked up to kind of say, well, that's not real. And it's, you know, kind of like your AI, right? It's not real. And it's just like, well, it's real. And that's what I saw. So that hurt. But I've learned to look past that now. And just like, whatever, like, I'm just like, this is this is me. look up to, I just don't care anymore. Like, I look up to them because of their own style and their own this and that, and maybe I've tried to learn from that. you know, it's the people I respect the most who really matter the most. When someone says, you know, you should, maybe you should do this, and I respect their word. they're trying to help me get forward rather than, ew, just criticize and Who does Lori think she is trying to do this, this and that? Like, screw you, buddy. I'm going to do me and hey, no one's no one's telling you to stick around in my circle. Beat it, you know, so. criticism is helpful and you can choose to take it or not take it. That's up to you. But yeah, everybody else. But how can people find you in your work and maybe find your works and prints? You offer prints and stuff, right? Online. I've got my website. I haven't really done anything with it. But if anybody's interested, you know, shoot me an email, shannbil.com or you know, connect with me through Facebook, Twitter. I'm on Instagram, YouTube. So, you know, I'm all over the place either as Shannon Bill, shannbil.com or Shannon Bileski. And that's the one unique thing about me. and I see Storm scratching herself, um is that there's only one of me, so there's only one Shannon Bileski out there, so you can find me, just Google me, and I'm out there. I love it. Thanks again for coming on, Shannon. It's been great. I'm so glad to be able to do this. Me too. Thank you. That'll do it here for the Storm Before the Calm podcast. thanks a lot everybody and we'll talk to you on the next one. Take care.