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Throughout my whole career as a
professional surf photographer and more
recently in the high-end world of VIP travel
facilitation and adventure photography
showing and shooting clients wildest
adventures across the globe, I’ve always
found the time for chasing storms in
between, particularly around my own home
on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a rush, you're
completely alone and out in the elements
witnessing mother nature’s full force. I live
for chasing storms. I basically concentrate
on a small stretch of coastline where I
live smack in the middle of Noosa Heads
and Coolum in QLD. Geographically it’s a
fantastic place for summer storms as the
sub-tropical location is perfect for creating
spectacular lightning shows where the
warm waters meet cooler southern winds.
This night in particular, was a long burn to
get this shot. I went out around 6pm and
the initial storm dissipated. A secondary
storm flared up where I planned this shot
around 1am. The time in between that was
useless; that’s the hard thing is sticking it
out and not packing up. This is one thing
that I used to do each day shooting surf, I
would leave the beach on dark. You’d be
surprised how many people leave and say
when did you get that shot! “ahhh while you
were on your 3rd Bintang or thereabouts?”
The thing is with storm chasing is you can
look at lightning trackers and apps but it
never replaces local knowledge. I had a
feeling the storm would reform and head
out to sea up the coast as I’ve watched
this happen many times growing up here.
Achieving a shot where I can see the stars,
storm clouds and foreground is what I’m
always after. It just gives storms these
perspectives and magical snapshot into
what’s happening above and below. The
best thing is you never really know what
you’re going to get but you can plan to be
around the right distance and location to
achieve what’s in your brain. Of course,
a lot of trips out storm chasing produce
nothing apart from empty coffee cups and a
sandy truck.
Contact mick@mickcurleyphotography.com
Insta – mick_curley_images
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