Storm Before the Podcast Episode 26: Storm Photographer / Webmaster Liz Kemp

Join us for an inspiring conversation with storm chaser and photographer Liz Kemp as she shares her journey from film photography to capturing lightning and storms in Arizona. Discover her techniques, memorable experiences, and tips for aspiring storm photographers.

links: 

https://www.facebook.com/reflectedwisdom

https://www.facebook.com/khyri

https://www.instagram.com/reflectedwisdom/

keywords

storm chasing, lightning photography, Arizona storms, storm photography tips, storm chasing community, drone photography, weather photography, storm chasing stories

key topics

• Liz Kemp's background in photography and storm chasing
• Techniques for lightning and storm photography
• Memorable storm chasing experiences and lessons
• The role of community and social media in storm chasing
• Using drones and equipment for storm photography

 resources

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum - https://www.desertmuseum.org/
Tucson Storm Chasing Community on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/326902827766658

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the storm before him before the calm podcast. I am your host Lori Grace Bailey today I have probably my my longest friend ever since I've been in Arizona So what is that Liz 2008 or something Liz Kemp? She is a storm chaser longtime photographer as long as I've known has always been just an everything photographer, landscape photography, portraits, weddings, you name it, Liz has pretty much shot it. Liz is also the webmaster for the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. which is a really cool thing, especially if you like seeing the Raptor, free flight and a bunch of other cool stuff at the Desert Museum. Desert Museum is, what is it, one of the top premier destination, tourist destinations in Tucson. It's usually the number one or the number two with TripAdvisor for tourists in Arizona. Everybody loves to see it. So thanks for coming on Liz. we finally get to sit down and chit chat a little bit in front of the cameras. Yeah, it's probably a first that we've done this. mean, normally we're chit chatting in person, so this is a little different for me. Well, in the last few times it's been bowling and Liz has been beating me in the bowling, on the bowling lanes. That's okay. We go to have fun, but you've been doing a lot better than I have actually. Well, you know, it's lot of different factors, I'm sure. I think it's just because we just go to have fun. I think if I stopped having fun, I probably would stop bowling because I really need to just be able to enjoy it. I think we have a fun time though, a little bit of snacks and. yeah, we definitely have a fun time for sure. It is good to have friends that have had such a history, for photography, isn't it? I mean, Tucson is filled with so many amazing photographers. And then people who also do other things with their photography, but storm chasing in particular. I how did you come about? mean, let's go in, let's go there and find out. you know, when did you, first of all, when did you develop a passion for photography? Because even when I met you back in 2007, 2008, you were already, you already had, was it reflect, I'm gonna mess it up, wisdom photography at the time, right? Well, I didn't have it under that name, but yeah, I was starting to do photography. Sure, yeah, I think I met you in January of 2008, or at least in person. But I don't think we did photography together for quite a while. I mean, going way, way back, if you want to consider when I got my first, what I call real camera, first camera of my own, that was back in Paris in 1982. my goodness. I still have that camera. It was a little Pentax Auto 110. It took 110 cartridge film, but it had interchangeable lenses and all sorts of stuff that DSLRs have today. yeah, so I went around in Paris and took artistic photos in black and white of graffiti and things. So that was probably the beginning, for sure. Wow. And so even then, I guess, did you actually have to take your film in to develop or did you ever do it yourself? I sort of helped other people do it, but it was so cumbersome. It was just a lot easier to drop off the cartridge at a chemist or a pharmacy and have them do it. Yeah, it was just easier to do that. I don't think the younger generations will ever know what those little stands, remember those little stands? One hour develop and you would be driving in a strip mall, you would see just a little tiny hut and you would just drop off your film there and you could come back for it. I don't know if they had that in England or in Paris. Did they even have those back then? I guess they had it everywhere. Oh. mean, I know that whatever you got wasn't the highest quality. was, you know, quick turn around and here's your pics. Right if they came out at all because of course, know if you if you ever overexposed Yeah, I mean, I know that the photos my mother took of me as a child, like some of my head is cut off or, you know, things are off to the side, but I appreciate the fact that she did take the photos so that I have those childhood memories to look back at. yeah, I love seeing some of those photos that you share of your childhood and you know, the as far as like aesthetic quality, like nobody cares, right? We're just glad that we have those older photos of the past and when we were younger, I have very few and you know, but like the one that I have of my dad of when he was in the Air Force is a keeper. I think we've talked about that as photographers is. That photography means more than just, look, I took a great photo. Let me see how many likes I can get. Remember the days where we loved the photo because, my goodness, what would I do if the house was burning down? People used to say, I would go for my photo albums, right? Right, exactly. And you know, my house did burn down and I lost a lot of photos, so... yeah, I'm sorry about that. I didn't even put two and two. that's, I was gonna say that's a real burn, but I would just step on my toes yet again. my goodness, wow. I appreciate that, thank you for bearing with me and my inability to put two and two together sometimes, but goodness gracious. You what was your first digital camera? Since you had the original 35 millimeter or the 110, what was your first digital? First digital, think was, went to Costco in 2010 and they had a bundle that was the Canon T1i. It was a Canon Rebel and it came with two lenses and it was $999. remember uh it was, I mean, you can buy better cameras for less now. um For some things inflation has gone backwards. What was it like a 12 megapixel or something or was it more? Something around that, I don't remember exactly, but I mean it was good enough for what I wanted to do, that was just play with. Yeah. I had the, you said you had the T one night and I had the XTI, which I think was a couple of years, right, right before it was one of the first digital rebels. just remember they had the digital rebel and then the rebel X and then XTI or something like that. don't know. I, I lost all the terminology, but yeah, it was a 12 minute, I still have it too. And, and I'm like, you know, I need to take that storm chasing and see if I can with the with the old crappy 55, what is it? A millimeter kit lens, I think at 18 to 55. I think it was the, the something to 55 and then the 55 to 95 or something. Yeah. yeah. I see I had one of those too, but that was really about the same time that I fell in love with photography too. And then, you know, you were using it to shoot animals and all that good stuff. But then you also fell in love with storm chasing too, which is I'm sure people are like, show us the money, show us the stuff, you know. I mean, we can leave the word chasing off because my first lightning photos were taken from my front porch. I didn't even leave the house. So you can't really call it chasing, but. Yeah, I guess, I guess so. I call it backyard chasing, you know, that's okay. You know, we have a lot of people in the community, even some younger folk who I've interviewed that aren't able to even drive and yet they're so passionate about weather. And I just think that's the coolest thing that kind of the guardrails are off, not the guardrails, but there's less gatekeeping like, no, you're not someone special. Who cares? You know, if you love the weather and you love, and you are in a great spot as well in Tucson to be able to capture that lightning. Did you figure it out when you first started off? Were you like, okay, how am going to set this camera to actually capture a bolt of lightning? Yeah, I find that I learn best by figuring stuff out myself rather than learning from other people. And I have that sort of brain that does math in my head. So I was like, aperture, exposure, shutter speed, ISO. And I figured it out. It sticks with me better that way. If I just have somebody tell me how to do it, it's going to disappear from my memory. wow. Yeah, I get that too. I really need hands-on, know, even watching online stuff. need to be able to look at, when I set up my Sony camera, new camera, I've got to watch Tony and Chelsea or something like here are the best settings I do to set this camera up. And once I can actually get into it and I'm a tactile person, I need that kind of response as well to really learn. So, When did you, even though you had that camera, when did you actually start to develop that passion for weather, passion for storm I mean, I wouldn't even have thought of storm chasing in England. It just wouldn't be a thing. But yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, I mean, you were around, you were doing it. And it was just like, well, this is another thing I can do with my camera. look, there's thunder outside. I'll just go outside and see what's going on. So I don't know, I wouldn't say 2015, maybe. that I would actually intentionally go out. same. Mm-hmm. That was about the same time with me too, and we both were like, hey, this is fun. Let's get after it. Yeah, I think we sort of both came to it independently and then realized that we were both doing it. of course. Yeah, I think we realized like, hey, this little thing can capture some in addition to portraits and stuff. And you being at the Arizona Desert Museum, how many years, if you don't mind me asking, have you have you have you been employed there as the I think it's always been the webmaster, right? Yeah, I've always had the same job title. It's been 20 years and one month. And although I've always been titled webmaster, I've worked in different departments, the IT department, the graphics department, the finance department, the marketing department. But I've always done exactly the same job. I've just reported through a different structure. Gotcha. Gotcha. I've seen you doing audio visual at that sometime and I'm sure that the employees are all like, Hey, we need someone to take care of this or something. And someone will jump, jump at the, the, at the necessity to, get the job done. It's a, it's a big gig to do. So yeah, absolutely. Well, I know you've had to do that and it's, it's kind of fun watching. can, I can almost laugh from the side like, ha ha, you're doing this now. what do mean you're doing? What do mean you're doing this event? You're not even the photographer. You're like, am now. It's just... or I'm on a golf cart driving people around, you know. That's part of it too. Well, security's next. Maybe they'll give you a badge and a gun and no, I don't think so. think I quite have the background for that. Okay, all right, that's fair enough. That's fair enough. So, how did you develop that passion? Like what made it special? What made chasing and capturing extraordinary skies special to you? I think in a way it was other people in the community. The fact that I could do something that to me wasn't terribly complicated, but when I shared it with other people, they were amazed that I could produce something like that. It gave me a sense of satisfaction, a sense of producing something that other people were in awe of. And I was like, well, let's do more. Let's do more. Heck yeah. Plus it's also so limited out here in the, people will see those images and they think, wow, I need to go to Arizona in December to see this. You're like, no, not gonna happen buddy. We get three months out of the year basically to get it done. or three if we're lucky these days. I know, right? Yeah, exactly. And the monsoon is so finicky and there are years where monsoon giveth and taketh away. can you share one of your most memorable experiences while chasing storms or extreme weather? it is the one out by cells that you're thinking of. I know that that's one, definitely one of them. I the one where you almost got domed. Is that the one? so I think we might see that photo later on. em yeah, if you're going to tell the story on that one, if that's the one I'm going to bring that is that the two bolts that cross? That's awesome. I'd love to share that even right now. We can, you can, you can tell me about that. I send a couple of others that go with it. I was, yeah, that's the one. So I was out in cells, which for people who aren't familiar with the area, it's mostly reservation, I would say. It's dominated by reservation and it's pretty isolated. And I'd had... um I don't know who it was. It might've been the sheriff or a park ranger come up and just check on me, make sure I was okay, off to the side of the road. I'm like, I'm fine. And I was looking at radar and I could see that I was, know, the green hadn't even got to me and the orange and the yellow and the red, where all the storm was, where all the lightning was falling was, you know, quite a ways off. I had two cameras out, two tripods. And I could see it was moving pretty fast towards me. I thought, oh, you know, I should pack up and retreat to a safe distance. So I picked up one tripod, folded it up, and then leant into the car to put that camera on the passenger seat. And as I was leaning into the car, I heard this huge, huge crack of thunder. And that was what you see in the photo there. And so I have the other camera and tripod in the car in like 30 seconds. I can imagine. And you would think, well, it doesn't look that far, Liz, right? mean, if you, you know, people don't understand how wide you're shooting and then they, let me go back and we'll see these, is this, are these the radar for them? Yeah, so the other one first. Okay, so there you can see that I'm off. My little dot is off to the right of the screen there. And you know, mean, stuff is happening. It's time to pack up. So that was when I started to pack up. And you can see there's another red dot. I'm not sure who that was up there. ah But yeah, so that was when I decided to pack up. And then the next radar screenshot. That's the full bolts that you see in that photo. And if you know how, right, exactly. Yeah. an indication that one landed behind you as well. See the bolt in here? Oh my god. Oh shoot. Wow. time to pack up. That was pretty close. There was maybe five minutes between those two radar screenshots. So yeah, that was... you know, the gods chose, you know, did not choose you to, you know, to discharge their, is this some refraction on the lens too from the lightning? I mean, I don't know what else it would be. It probably is. But yeah, so, so, you know, I got in the car. I made sure that nothing was touching the ground. I knew to windows closed. And the first thing I did before I started the car is I texted you. And I think I said something like, I got the shot. I got the shot. And then I, I sent you that. back of the camera photo of it. And I think you had trouble spelling in your reply. Yeah, it was like a 52 word random letters reply. yeah, yeah, just like, my god, my god, my god, just blblblbl. That's incredible. But yeah, the next thing I did was drive about 20 miles further east. You knew it was too close. mean, we talk about mitigating risk, right? And you're still here, so that tells me that you're doing something right, that we're doing something right. We haven't been domed. haven't been, well, I have been struck, but we won't go there. And that was early on in my chasing life. So, you know, I probably would do things a little differently now. Oh, that was in 2020. Wow. Has it been that long already? I guess that was, yeah, probably, yeah, so early pandemic. so our friend Devon Russell, was with his wife, they were set up behind the gas station in cells, a few miles away, and he caught those same bolts. And you can see from his photo, it's, I mean, it looks like he's close to it, but he's several miles away. was right underneath him. one, yeah, this one is the one you could, I love that when you get, don't you love it when you get that purple fringing into the, into the actual lightning bolt, you know that it's dark enough, first of all, even if it's a daytime bolt and you get that purple fringing, especially coming out of the cloud. Uh, I don't know. I mean, I mean, I mean, this was so close that, you know, how did I not blow it out? I must've had my settings pretty low in the first place. Well, you nailed the settings so I mean you nailed that shot at least can you imagine how mad you would have been if you looked at the back of the camera and all you saw was white oh I would have been That would have been really challenging speaking of challenging, you know You and I have both You know me better than any other chaser out there, any other friend out there. And you know that I used to really take it to heart. I think I'm a lot better now. think I'm like, you're like, you, you know, you had a really bad day, but you seem to be, you know, handling it better than you used to, you know, or better than I would expected you to handle. What about you? How do you mentally prepare yourself? to get out there and go, know you've also had some days where you just give it your all and then everything, and you're not alone, but everything seems to go wrong. You get to the wrong spot and somebody, some rando person is in the middle of somewhere that nobody else is in getting the most epic shots. And everything that you did from planning to getting your gear ready, it was all for nothing, but it really wasn't. That's how you feel. do you mentally prepare yourself to avoid that now and to... it's, it's hard. don't think I do anything beforehand, because I always, I'm always too optimistic to think that that's going to be the case. Um, but I mean, if it does turn out to be one of those days, I do feel it very intensely. but some part of my brain that sort of higher than the emotion part says that this has happened before and I will get over the emotion and I won't feel like, you know, throwing in the towel and never chasing again. I just had to give it 24 hours or whatever. But certainly when I get home, those emotions are still pretty raw and I just have to caught myself out of it. something that I'm really proud of you is that you have you have grown into your own? Abilities to to be able to do that as well because you were like you you do that you learn you integrate everything that you've needed to learn to go out there and forecast and do it all and then all of sudden I see you out out by Pisinemo which I think is how you pronounce it, but I see your you know your your dot, your spotter dot already somewhere out way out west. And I'm just like, my goodness, that's a big storm coming towards Liz. And you end up pulling off these crazy shots. We're going to show some other shots too in a little bit that are just crazy. And it's because you seize the moment. You really saw something like the one over cat, wildcat mountain. I mean, if you weren't pointing in that direction, you would have missed some really epic shots. And I know that as far as forecasting, I'm not one of the top tier. And I admit that. I think it's because I actually have a background in computer modeling of uh fluids and thermodynamics, which you think would be a great background for weather forecasting. But I think it's because the way in which I've used that professionally, it's been more of an exact science and whether we'll never be an exact science. And I think that my frustration with, well, can, you you're never gonna model the atmosphere of the earth with a hundred percent accuracy. uh It's hard for me to get into that side of it, although I do have mathematical brain. But yeah, I mean, and obviously the community is an important part of that. You listen to what other people think and what other people are forecasting. And you give weight to what they say. You don't always believe everything you hear. And then of course, I'm one of the few, I think, that is lucky enough to live on the southwest side of Tucson. I have an advantage, a head start for storms that come up through those mountains, Baboquivari and Kitt Peak. I'm halfway there. So that helps too. Yeah, just like I have the advantage of being closer towards the US Mexico border where all the big storms tend to bubble up first over the afternoon. You you have that ability to get, you know, you even have a building close to you that you can get to and get onto the top of it. But you have this one building that you have captured some really crazy shots from the top of the parking lot garage too. I do. That's Casino del Sol on West Valencia. It's about five minute drive from my house. Obviously, it's frustrating when you have to drive all the way up the five floors of the parking structure to get to the roof. But once you get there, you have probably, I don't know, 200 degree views unobstructed and then some views to the north as well, a little more obstructed, but you can get those storms too. and it's a great place to shoot from. Other people seem to be doing that now too. Now I've noticed now that you started doing that, other people also will tend to congregate in that area knowing that they're going to get, not going to be stuck in the Mesquite. Cause the one thing that is all too frustrating is the Mesquite, right? Especially out there by highway 286 and Ajo highway. And I know people that watch, you know, so many people from around. The states don't really understand. think Arizona desert is flat, wide open spaces. It's not like that when you're a photographer, Liz, you know, how, how frustrating can that be? You know, I don't think people know about that, but Mesquite is not your friend when you're trying to get landing points as a photographer, right? Yeah, you either have to say, never mind about landing points. I'm just going to get mosquitoes a foreground. But I'd rather have a prickly pear or saguaro as a foreground. But yeah, getting landing points is tough when you've got that brush, for sure. Something that you do though that a lot of other people don't you and I have learned kind of together over the years. Why don't we go scout new locations when we're not chasing? You know, I think that's something that's almost just a given. It's an easy secret to unlock. Wouldn't you agree? Absolutely, if you can find the time to do that and just drop those pins in Google Maps and remember them for next time. it's fun learning more about Arizona that way as well. Right, right. I've seen you do that and I'll see now I know like if I see you in a certain location I'll see you I'll see your your spotter dot or something or I'll see where you go and I'm like, I know where she's at because there's just a little bit of an elevation for you to get up and and shoot above all of that tall the mesquite people don't know how tall the mesquite get out here in the in the Sonoran Desert What is it 20 25 feet? I think that some of these can grow Well, I have one in my backyard that's taller than my house, so yeah. Crazy, crazy. yeah, they're real trees. And in El Paso in West Texas, the Mesquite really literally is only about three or four feet tall. But out here, the Sonora Desert is really vibrant. Working at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, that's given you a real privilege to be able to integrate. the beauty of the Sonoran Desert, like how do you incorporate that and how much beauty in addition to the storms do you look to combine when you're trying to create this composition? Well, as I mentioned, I always try to look for something interesting in the foreground that isn't going to obscure the storm, but it's going to give some interest to the resulting photo. And certainly working out there at the museum makes that a little easier. There are also many, vantage points at the museum where you have a good overlook over the Altar Valley and you can see the storms coming in. It's a great spot to do photography of all kinds, really. And people don't realize that sometimes in the transition season late in the monsoon, we get supercells in that Altar Valley. tend to spin up and Trey Greenwood has even talked about that. I remember us being at a monsoon con where Trey was talking about that open, super open flat area is more conducive in Southern Arizona for land spouts And I remember one particular picture you were at work and you sent me just a phone grab of of the valley and there was just that green meso as a supercell spinning off into the valley and I was like, have got to get that way. That is incredible. Yeah, there's some great structure that's come through. like I say, I'm not as much a weather nerd as some people are. And sometimes I'll look, and the only way I can describe it is like, there's something wrong in the sky. Because the sky just looks so different from the way it normally does. that means something's going to happen. Speaking of that location that you, you know, just almost adding to that, you met a quite famous, world famous storm chaser there one day out there. Can you talk about that? I'm sure people have never heard about this. I mean, it was embarrassing at the time, but it's fine now. So I was not too far from home, probably about three, four miles west of where I live. There's a little airfield called Ryan Field out on Highway 83. And I'd been shooting to the east of that. And then I I realized that I needed to move west. So I moved west to another little tiny road that goes off Highway 83. And I saw there was a beat up car already there. thought, oh, strange. I don't recognize it. Is it another chaser? What's going on? So I pulled in, post-veil road. And I pulled back out and I stopped. And I saw this guy with a rather weird looking camera, a little short tripod. And so I... I was polite. said, do you mind if we share this space? He said, no, that's fine. And he said, you just missed a tornado. And I was like, what? No, we don't know. But I mean, I didn't say that out loud. I don't want to be rude. So I was like, I'm sure. Right. Yeah, we don't get tornado. He said, yeah, it was just north. He just missed it by about 10 minutes. I'm like, OK, I played along. And so we chatted a little bit and he said he was. He was out here. He's normally based in Texas, but he was just out here for some monsoon. And he said his name was Hank, ah which meant nothing to me, absolutely nothing. This was early on in my career. ah And he told me all about his camera. And he was just shooting video. He didn't have a lightning trigger. He obviously didn't know what he was doing. Sure. So anyway, so then I went back home and, I took a little selfie of the two of us together and I went back home and I posted it on our Tucson Storm Chasers Facebook group. I said, I met this tourist guy. He's trying to storm chase. He said his name was Hank. He's from Texas. And very quickly people put me right and that he did know what he was doing and that, yeah. So that was how I met Pecos Hank. Pecos, Hank. and then, you know, later on, a couple of months later, he posted this video that was titled, you know, I saw a tornado in Arizona and it was actually a little tiny tornado on the horizon. And so he was right and I was wrong. But anyway, that was that was how I came to know who he was. I mean, I think that is really cool though, too. And, and, you weren't, you know, you weren't fangirling or anything. You were just, just being kind, asking if, if you could share the space and he reciprocated, you know, I'll, I, I bet he probably thought he probably was relieved that, that that was the response was like, she doesn't know who I am. Cool. You know, I don't, I don't have to worry about, can I get a photo or, cause the guy does, you know, out on the planes, you see it all the time or, I got to see it. I got to take a picture. of Pecos Hank, you just like you and I when we saw Reed and I was like, Liz, I got it. We have to get to whatever this little loves and actually we were already there for a bust of a day in Western Oklahoma that day you and I chased together. And, and Brooke was with us that day, right? I think she was. Yeah. And Reed ended up showing up in the Dom and, and we were, you know, I was like, Hey, we got to meet Reed. And of course I saw Reed and there was already a hundred other people and I was like, Reed, he's like, Lori, promised to give you a hug. And so that I was fangirling, but I'm sure Pecos Hink gets that same feeling just like, and he's kind and Reed's kind. Everybody's kind too, you know, but it's just fun. I think he was playing up. He realized that I thought he was, you know, a novice and he was playing that up. He was like, Oh, have you been doing this for long? Oh, do you know, do you know what's his name? Mike Oblinski is it? So I think he was just playing along because he knows who Mike Oblinski is. Of course, they're friends. you know, I just think that that's such a cute story to tell that, you know, I've I've seen I get to see Roger Hill out here. He loves to come down closer to the US border. Roger knows how to chase. Even though Robert Roger catches tornadoes all the time, he brings his group down. And I always know. My little secret spots, Roger Tens, I see that big old van and I go out and I give Roger a hug too, because he's just such a big, sweet, sweet, sweet guy as well. And it's cool to see that too. And it's just fun that we have those, those other chasers that do make their way out. And it, I think it proves to me and you that Arizona is worth chasing. You know, the monsoon is worth chasing if that's what you're looking for, especially as a photographer, wouldn't you agree? yeah, it's totally different from chasing anywhere else, I think. You have to have a whole new skill set, but it's worth it. Well, and you have to be prepared to chase pulse storms as well versus like there's the supercell there it is go get that one and and stay with it because it's gonna stay with it versus there it nope nope nope nope not that one shoot I'm 60 miles away and everybody else where I just left yeah yeah, it's not like you can wake up in the morning and know how the day is going to go. You can't do that. Can you, I know that feeling too, can you share a particularly difficult moment that you encountered and how did that impact? How did you respond to that? Well, what, what role has perseverance played in your pursuit and actually deciding to get up again and do it again? How do you persevere through the dark stuff and decide to pull yourself up and get after it again? It is tough because as I mentioned, it takes me good 24 hours to get over those negative emotions. But I remember one day, think storms were headed roughly north, maybe northwest a little bit. And I was late to the party. And by the time I was getting out of the house, things were already on their way to Phoenix. And so I started chasing and chasing and chasing and hoping I could catch up with it. and it was just, by the time I got close to Phoenix, it was obvious it was never going to happen. So I changed tack. said, well, you know, I'm just gonna, I've got my camping set up in the back of my car. I'm just going to go up the white mountains and maybe camp overnight or something. Um, and just, just, you know, forget about the storms. And as I was going, through, there's a little dip. it's a big dip actually. It goes down to the Salt River on the way up to the White Mountains. And as I was approaching that, there was this amazing rainbow right in front of me. And the end of the rainbow was going down into the canyon. And I got the most amazing rainbow photo that I've never got before, you know, where the end of the rainbow was below me. um So, you know, if I hadn't sort of given up on the storms, I would never have got the rainbow photo. And then, you know, once I was up in the white man's, actually got a couple of stones up there too. you know, it was once I, you know, said I've given up, I'm not going to get anything today. And then I ended up getting something. Right. So you're saying that you've learned to switch gears if things aren't going your way. think, God, I don't think I've learned how to do that, Liz. I think I go full board. I'm a rocket and I've already been programmed to get to the moon and not to shoot for Mars or something else. I know it's a dumb analogy, but I tend to go full forward and then I smacked into the wall. Right. I tend to be a train on a track versus versus being willing to maybe change courses. That's pretty cool. Do you find yourself? think it was because, you know, I'd driven two hours. I didn't want those two hours to be wasted. So I thought, what else can I do to make that journey worthwhile? And I said, well, I'll go car camp overnight in the mountains. I'm gonna make a mental note of that, that I need to learn to adjust course as necessary. think that's one of the things that I'm weak on when it comes to chasing is that, no, no, I didn't get it. I forecasted here and it just winds me up. Yeah, it's hard to do that because you've got to make that intellectual part of your brain override the emotional part. It's tough. So What is your favorite location to chase? If you could chase anywhere you know, I think I have yet to find that favorite location. I mean, I have lots of locations that I'll return to because they're easy to get to, or I know there'll be good storms. But I have yet to find that one location that I love. I know it must be out on somewhere. I need to do more scouting. But I think that's still in my future. I think that, you know, where when that one day you and Brooker went out to Europe in the mountain somewhere near you guys went all the way around Safford area and you came back and you were sending pictures. Holy moly. and then we came back down to Safford from the north. Yeah, we went almost up to, I think up to Oracle and then back down. Yeah. you, you all weren't even planning on storm chasing. And again, you know, that, that area, like, gosh, I really, I think, I think that that's given me inspiration to really get out there. know Flannel gets, goes out there. Other people go out there. I don't tend to make my way that far north to, to often up into Morenci, I think, and Clifton and all that area. It is. Yeah. is a commitment. But yeah, I think that was the day we got up there and this huge storm started out right in front of us. And I sent you the photo and you knew there was going to be a haboob from that storm. was like this is bunker. that's right That was the hubbub day and I was sitting in Patagonia for three hours at my little spot like Nope, no little storm pops up and I was just like well I hope that you know at least you guys were having fun And you know and I didn't hear from you because you were way up in the middle of nowhere And then I just see this photo come through of this giant beautiful pink Sunset storm, you know, it was pinkish right and just that just as wild colors and then, you, did you, you even got to take pictures with your drone, right? can't remember. Maybe that time. can't remember. I need to remember my drone more often. It's always with me. Yeah. Yeah. I, I just, sometimes I just forget that the drone is there and I can fly it, but I need to get into that habit. What, what, what, you know, for those who are considering getting into drone photography, you, by the way, you know, you, you, you also do real estate photography also, and you incorporate the drone. you work with Casey and, and, and, and his business and all that good stuff, but you capture some incredible, you will, you are a professional at the drone. can capture the, the, the surrounding area of the home and you get that quality, that commercial quality that someone, you know, a realtor will expect out of that. But, incorporating that into your storm chasing as well. Would you think it's worth it? What would you say to someone who's going, I'd like to get a drone, but I don't know if it's worth it as far as storm chasing. yeah, I don't know if that was the factor for me. I think the factor for me was I didn't know if I was. I would be capable of doing it safely. I didn't grow up with that sort of game controller with joysticks. I didn't trust myself to be in control of it enough. But once you've done it, you realize it's not as hard as they say. It's, yeah, I mean, there's always a little, you know, don't fly into a tree and don't fall into a lake. It's I was way more scared before I had a drone than I am now that I have a drone. You just want to get over that. And it's, you know, and it's, you know, it's I don't want to say it's easy, but it's. You're comfortable with it now. I'm comfortable with it. Drones, know, entry level drones aren't that expensive. And if you try it and you don't feel it's worth it, sell it on to somebody else. There you go. There you go. In a lot of areas in Tucson, area, you Tucson, Patagonia, or Fort Huachuca, you cannot fly the drone. I currently cannot fly mine in Rio Rico. Thanks a lot, federal government. But oh well, I'm not going to break the law either. So I'll wait till the TFR is lifted. Yeah, I can't launch my drone from my backyard, but people who live six, eight houses down can. I'm right on that barrier for Ryan to build that little airport. Wow So once you learn the rules then then you're kind of unlimited to what you want to do to incorporate that with the drone and you know the DSLR the DS the mirrorless camera still is king though when it comes to the thought the best image quality right for lightning Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't chase without it. Just doing drone would never cut it with me. Yeah. wondered like, should I just focus on the drone? And I mean, you and I have such a setup with cameras and lenses and all the good stuff. And I just wonder to myself, because I have to pick it. I have to pick my battle, right? Like you've seen me, no, Liz, I'm miss I'm there. I've got three tripods out with three cameras and I want to fly the drone. You're like, and you'll tell me, look up in the sky. It's time to go. And there's a green core right above us. I'm like, shoot. Yeah. We're about to get hailed on right now. Like we need to get out of here. Yeah, then you can land the drone, pack up all the different tripods and... tricky. It's so tricky. my goodness. mean, for storm photography or videography, I think with a drone, it's it's it's got to be video, right? You still photo with a drone is not that exciting. And I don't like video editing. I find video editing tedious and time consuming and not fun. I know that you like doing it, but ah I'd rather edit photos. I prefer the photos as well, especially a good crisp lightning bolt photo with a good composition and everything else. And then of course I take 300 photos or 600 photos and turn them into a time lapse. So I turn them into video anyway. So, you know. but that's not like editing four hours of video that you've taken. that's not yeah, I have tons of it that I've been meaning to get to to to push you know onto my channel because I have so much content that I'm happy with and I just haven't gotten to it because I just stay busy and everything else so but that is you know that's interesting to know and I have a feeling we're going to see more drone photography incorporated into storm chasing so but it's And you spent a lot of money on it you don't want to see it destroyed. That's always the biggest fear. if we're storm chasing, you know, as well as I do that those, those gust front outflow winds can knock your drone to the ground too. And that's another fear I have is like, time to get it down before the winds come in. People don't know that those winds can really break a camera too. I'm. I mean, I... my camera fall down. Right. I don't know whether this is the case with most drones, but mine will give me a little warning if it senses the winds are too high or say, you know, land now, land as soon as possible, winds are too high. So at least it does that. Mine does too I get really scared and then I totally like no I just head straight home and I look back to me and I land it because it's just too much as we get closer to the end of here you know there are a lot of people that are just getting started. think people have seen Twisters now, Twister and Twisters, great movies. I still like Supercell, the one that Skip Talbot and the one that Alec Baldwin, that's a great movie too. But there are a lot of younger people coming in as well. Is there any advice you would give them who are facing their own challenges and hardships and is this something that can help them to grow as a person? I mean, yeah, obviously social media makes things so much easier than they did when we were growing up. You can make connections with people that have common interests. You know, obviously, you know, be careful, stranger danger and all that. Don't accept an offer to go storm chase with someone you've never met before and who nobody knows. But yeah, you know, draw on that circle of friends and friends of friends. go out with someone who's been out before. If you go out on your own the first time, you're probably not going to get great stuff. So if you're not going to get great stuff, share it with someone and get not great stuff together. But yeah. chaser buddies are good or helpful, especially navigating. We got to get from point A to point B and you're trying to focus on the road. But you know, chasing with a partner or with a buddy, you know, you, you have some fun stories to tell too. And I think that that's, that's always a fun thing to do. I do like to. I like the to chase alone, especially when I need that, that mental, just that, that mental refilling that I need sometimes. But I think there's, there's room for all of it, right? There's, there's room for chasing with a friend, a partner with, with the group or meeting up with, with a group of people. can you tell us a little bit about the Tucson storm chasers? You're one of the admin for the, for this group. For those who are considering, you know, maybe wanting to jump into storm chasing and they're in the Tucson area, how can they start to connect with people? Well, the group is based on Facebook. It's the official Tucson Storm Chasers. If you search for it and find it, we're a great group of people. I don't remember how many members we have right now, but active members, we have a fair amount. Most of us have our own little red dots. uh It's a quiet group outside of the season. But once monsoon starts, you'll be seeing many, many posts today right from the morning when people are talking about where they think the storms are going to go, where they might drive to, what they're expecting. And then throughout the day, people will be posting their cell phone pics, hey, you know, this I am right now. This is where I'm set up. And you do get to know people. get, even if you've never met them before, you feel like you know them from their posts online. And then you'll be somewhere with your tripod and a car drives up and you'll turn and you're like, that's so and so from the group. It makes a difference. It really does. And then some of the, you know, the occasional meetups and stuff like that are really cool. And it helps people to, I know so many people from the Tucson Storm Chaser group that have come up through the years and they've gone on to win awards and they've just improved year over year. And that's such a cool thing to see, right? When you see so many other people, you know, blossom as a, you know, almost like a flower blossoming in their skills and their their ability to capture some unique images too. I know that you've interviewed a couple of them and yeah, the social aspect is really important, especially because I think this is a sort of hobby that attracts people who might have difficulties making social connections otherwise. It can provide a lifeline to some people who feel very isolated. Definitely, definitely. I know my own neurodivergence, I think there's a special place. I think there are quite a few people in the storm chasing community who also share in those same struggles as well. And I think there's a cohesion because of that, especially with certain people, you can just feel like, I can be myself. And I think that's one thing that separates the Tucson storm chasing community apart from the overall weather community is just it's. It's a little more tight knit and there's not zero drama, but there's not a lot of drama either. And I'm glad that the admins don't even tolerate that. There's no room for that. Let's go chase. Let's shut up and chase and learn from one another. It's a great thing to do. Absolutely. I'd like to actually go over the next a couple of images before I let you go here. We did see that one. This one, look at how much lightning is on this thing. Can you tell us a little bit about this and what's so special about it? oh of Casino del Sol, again, about five minutes from my house. uh The spot that I took this from, unfortunately, is all filled with new houses now. ah I forget what year this was. You probably have it there. Right. And with my original T1i, my original Rebel camera, I actually had two cameras going. um that one in my 60, but this is the one that got the best shot. Again, 2019, I wasn't always as aware of distance as I am now. That was probably a point at which I might have packed up, but I was just out here. They were starting to build new houses behind me, nice open black mountain there in the foreground. mean, that night I probably got... 40, 50 photos that I felt were worth editing. And the interesting thing about that one is, like I said, I was all on my own, just a few miles from home, nobody there, and I assume nobody else there. And I think it was about two years ago, I saw another photo of this exact strike posted by someone who said, oh, back in 2019, we were out. And that was Roger Hill. Yeah. I think they were probably down a road a little bit behind me, a few hundred yards behind me. I had no clue that they were there. I had no clue that. Yeah. you can be 100 yards from someone and not know that they're. Right, and I had no clue until, you know, years later that somebody else had had that exact same shot that was out there at the same time as me. started looking at that photo and you go, you know that looks so familiar. Is that what you did? You're like. you're not going to get those exact strikes. I mean, there's so many of them. And I could look at his photo and I could tell it was, and he said what date he took it on and it was the same day. So it must've been. That's awesome. How did that make you feel after you captured that shot? You went home supercharged. Pun intended, supercharged, totally. Right, but I will say, you know, back in 2019, we had a lot more rainy days, consecutive rainy days than we do now. And so it seemed, I don't want to say easy, but it seemed like, oh, it's, you know, it's Wednesday, I've got Wednesday off, there's going to be a storm, I'll get something. And now you've got to pick your days a lot more carefully because There's a lot of days during that monsoon that there isn't even a storm anywhere. Right? Cloud free and the monsoons, the moisture plume is essentially moved either towards, you know, to the west or it's way over east towards, towards Western Texas and Southern New Mexico. And you have to be willing to, you know, you have to be willing to stretch your arms a little bit and, and drive the distance out as far as monsoon chasing, or it's further north up towards the Grand Canyon and Sedona and work that. know, 2019, that wasn't as much the case. You could get something close to home, almost guaranteed. That's definitely true. I remember this one. I remember going bonkers when I looked at it thought I mean, that's a that's a decent bolt you The strike is really great. Then I saw that little thing on the bottom, right and I was like you got to be kidding me That shows you the scale of the thing. So the mountain in the middle there, that's called Cat Mountain. It's very famous. ah And then down in the bottom right, as Lori says, you can see that is the casino. And the casino is pretty tall. ah So it really brings you that idea. And in fact, if you look hard, you can see there's mountains behind that stripe is lighting up. And those are the Catalina Mountains, which are the north of Tucson. Mount Lemmon would be up here somewhere. Yeah, somewhere up there behind those mountains. 9,200 feet up around here. So way off in the distance. But and then you I'm sorry, I was just saying you you and you got the silhouette of of cat mount Wildcat Mountain too, which is really cool. And that's something where I think I probably set up in the dark. You you hope you're pointing in the right direction, you're going to get something nice if there's lightning. But when you're setting up in the dark and you're focusing on a little tiny light in the distance and you don't know until the lightning strikes whether it's going to look composed or not sometimes. And like this was a big bolt. I mean, this was blown out right within the clouds, which is where it typically does when it's exiting out of the clouds, it tends to illuminate a little way too much before it comes out of there, but you still get all the branches and everything. Yeah, would you say that's a positive or not? I don't know just because it's so branchy. I always tend to think the positive strikes are the, I've told John this and maybe John told me this, but I always see them as a little T-Rex where they get the little bitty, like little arms way up high, and then it's just a smooth channel bolt going all the way to the bottom. There's like little branches that are, those are the ones I tend to see as positive, So I don't know, you never know, but I'm sure when you saw that, that was a really bright strike as well. It was, yeah, yeah. And in fact, when I shared it, I had several people who lived around Tucson saying, I'm sure that was the bolt I saw that night. You know, they recognized it, even seeing it from their house. And this is the first photo that I ever saw the print of. nice. Isn't that a great feeling when someone wants to buy your print? Right, and they bought it because their house is at the base of that mountain. So it was very special for them. I love that. That to me is better than most of the other likes or shares or follows or comments on Instagram or whatever. When someone buys a print of your work, man, that's a proud moment. And then you have this one. Okay, so this was taken on my cell phone. Sometimes I'm, you know, I'm very ambitious, shall we say, think that my finger can work as well as a lightning trigger. And this is, yeah, this is just out in the desert outside of my house. um And this is one of the times when my finger worked. I think probably that strike sort of had a few return. returns so that it stuck around for a second or two, which made it easier. um So for me, I think this is a great photo to market the trigger. uh Yeah, that's Nightly Pug Class and you can see the red light on the camera shows that it has triggered. um So I have this photo of it happening and then of course I have the photo, edited photo that the camera actually took. Right, think I have that somewhere in there. What happened to it? ah Yeah, I'll pull it up. Well, and I'll try to bring that up. But talk about this one. This one is incredible. I'm jealous that I wasn't shooting this wide because you got this shot. Mine, I like, I have a little bit more of the thing, but you got the scale. Holy smoke. I'm surprised we didn't die. This was this was the end of a very long chasing day and it wasn't all chasing. It was helping other chasers and yeah, it was we were all very tired uh and we stopped for gas at a gas station, which actually is probably close to where that struck. uh And and when we stopped at the gas station. we looked at radar and saw that the storm was continuing and I think it was you that says, oh, let's go down to the mission. And so we drove down to the mission. We were covered by the chasers already there. There were three of us and we set up and this is, and this just happened. It was, yeah. at, and those were a lot closer. I remember just like wanting to jump into the car, know, jump into the vehicle. Not that that's gonna do anything at that point. Why do I always jump? Because it's not fun. Yeah, it is way too late when that happens. Yeah, but yeah, again, and then this is the second photo I ever sold the print of. Yeah, no, that was someone someone in the. Someone on Facebook found me and she said that she was looking for a print to give to her husband for his birthday and that he he was fond of the mission. They actually lived in Phoenix uh and she. I actually did a special edit. She wanted it in sepia because all the other photos in their house were in sepia. So I did a sepia print for her and we met halfway up I10 and she gave me money and I gave her a print. There you go and and again, you know, that is just such the that is such a cool feeling to do that. There's the there's the other shot for some reason I could not find that but And what about this one I worry weren't you with Melissa on this one if I remember correctly was, was, this was a solo chase. I'd gone out to almost all the way to Sierra Vista and I was coming back towards Senoida and I could see that it was going to be good for sunset. And I, I was trying to find a good spot. And I remembered that you had shown me this spot, a little road that goes south from 82 and there's a bend and there's plenty of room. pull off, set up. And this, I mean, you this is where there's no mosquitos in the way. There's a few little ocotillo flowers you can see there. So I set up and five minutes later a tour bus draws up and 10 to 12 other cameras come out. That was a workshop with John Serlin and Greg McCowen leading it. I know the curve now. Yeah, I remember this shot. Yeah, that's funny. So, and we all, know, nine or 10 of us just, just were there and our cameras snapped away and we enjoyed the sunset. It's not your typical sunset colors. I did play with the colors a little bit, but I didn't want to completely go away from the colors that were actually there. Yeah. you know, the sun isn't all the way down, but again, it's one of my favorites and em it won an award. So there we go. Very cool. I love that, you know, when you see an image you think, that's your best work and then somebody else looks at it and then the person who took it goes, no, this one's my best work and there's such a meaning to it. And you just can't explain that. There's no way that the human eyes are, like I wouldn't have guessed that that would have been something that's one of your favorites, you know? Right. But yeah, I mean, I did a search recently on my tags on Flickr. I searched for the tag lightning and it came up with 3567 results of photos I've taken. So I mean, yeah, you can see, mean, it's nice and sharp. The sun is at exactly the right spot. You've got that well-defined rain shaft coming down. The clouds have definition. And, you know, I didn't even have to drive for that. I had to walk maybe 100 yards. wow, that's you know, most of the time that I capture lightning on my cell phone, which is maybe what twice a year, it's nothing special. But this one, it was just happened to be that special one. I love that. Well, I'm all lost on all these other photos. So I'll wrap it up with that because I think there's just so many awesome photos, but I want to make sure that we share with other people want to know where to find your work and to find your photography because you don't just shoot storms, you shoot everything. And I love the images that you capture because you're at the museum. You get the raptors. And, know, when I think of I used to think of raptors as, know, Jurassic Park, not but smart people, you know. Educated people will know what a raptor is and seeing the the Falcons and the owls and all that cool stuff Where can someone find all your your your socials? Well, I'm mainly on Facebook. You can also find me on Instagram and threads. If you look under reflected wisdom, search reflected wisdom, it should bring me up. try to, sometimes I, you know, I get so excited I forget to post when I come home in the evening, but I do try and post everything. And I think my most recent post, because we don't have thorns right now, our little prairie dog babies, which are very, very cute. you have seen so much life come through the museum, the Desert Museum, the loss of the mountain lion, I forget his name, Cruz? It was Cruz, I remembered. We lost Cruz and now there's a, is there a new, there are new baby lions coming in, mountain lions? two little boys, two little cubs. I think they're five months old. And yeah, so, but they're obviously they're not used to people yet. They need a little bit time behind the scenes, but eventually they will be back out on exhibit where Cruz was. And we're hoping that they will live happily together and provide hours of entertainment. And finding you on Facebook, do they have to look up just Liz Kemp? Or how would they? Reflected wisdom. Okay. Good. Awesome. And they can find you on the official Tucson Storm Chaser photography page. Or Storm Chaser page, yeah. before you join the group, you have to answer a few questions. But if you show a genuine interest and you're either live in the area or you're a snowbird who comes down, we'll let you in if you're a genuine person and really want to learn. Definitely, definitely. And I think the coolness of our friendship is that we've run the gamut of just storm chasing and all sorts of cool stuff and bowling even now, And do you have any final words of wisdom for someone looking to just get after it? Just get after it. Just do it. um But yeah, I would say it helps to at least have some sort of interest in photography. If you just think, I'll do it all on my cell phone, you're going to get frustrated. Just be prepared to have a little bit of investment in that equipment, and then you'll be so much happier with the results. And you even showed us with that T1i camera, just the basic kit lens and the basic, you got an incredible image and that's proof positive. And so I love that. in fact, I donated that camera to a project started by a co-worker. It's a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the jaguar in the US-Mexico border region. They're doing a lot of education with ranchers and school kids. And I donated the camera to them because they needed one. So good cause. because it still works and still takes great photos. So you don't have to spend too much of an investment, but make the investment if you're really interested in it. I like that. That's a perfect way to end it. And that'll that'll do it. Liz, thanks again for coming on. I so appreciate you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, that's gonna wrap it up here. I hope to see you all next next time you can follow like all that other stuff like and subscribe But as I always say at the end, make sure you shine your light while you still have it I'll talk to you all in the next one. Take care.