Zoom-in Online

The whole concept of "a picture is worth a thousand words" pretty much escaped most English Lit majors I graduated with. And then you "Stumble Upon" (which I did, both technically and literally) a series of images like this, and they stop you in your tracks.

Enjoy.

Mike Hollingsworth is apparently an amateur videographer who realized he couldn't capture the intensity of the storm image through video, and so he took up photography. It's almost hard to believe he didn't have formal training in photography given the immediacy, intensity and provocative nature of his images, but according to his site, that's the case:

I started out as a storm chaser, with no plans or desire to shoot still images. My thing was just video taping storms with a cheap camcorder. I soon saw a few cool skies and realized I needed something better to show the images on my site. So I had to buy a still camera, a Sony F707 in July of 2002. I only briefly had a still camera in my past. I had a film rebel for a couple months back in 96 or so. I shot maybe 4 rolls with it before I traded my sister for her video camera.

I began storm chasing May 16, 1999 but had always filmed and watched storms from town. Watching storms from town and actually heading out to chase are 2 very different things. If one ever wants to see amazing storms you're going to have to drive a lot and often for nothing. Each year I would increase my chases. I'm now to around 40 chases a year, which is more than enough. In 2005 I had just over 18,000 miles dedicated to just chasing storms. In 2006 it is nearing 22,000 miles which ranged from TX to ND and CO to IN.

The way he describes his growing obsession with storm chasing is the same way friends of mine reference snow boarding, surfing or other (less legal) passtimes.:

One can become so addicted to something that they lose all ability to view it from an outside angle. It's hard for me to step back and see how crazy doing this kind of is. I've woke up early in the morning and driven to Texas from near Omaha Nebraska, all for nothing, hoping to see cool clouds. To a chaser this does not seem at all crazy. If I try hard I can actually sort of see how crazy it really might be. The odds are very stacked against you seeing something very crazy, but we go anyway, often affraid of missing something. It can't be a very healthy hobby if you do it hard year after year. It is a bit depressing being so far from home and seeing crap storms or nothing at all, then having to start that long drive back, often while extremely tired.

This is now my "job" as of March 2004. I quit my old job because I hated it. I had no idea what I was going to do, my only plan was to chase all of spring 2004 then get a job in the summer or fall. Well things happen and here I am 3 years later with no job outside of this. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to make it work, but I will try. Being free to chase is obviously important to being able to find those cool skies. If I do get a job, I'll certainly chase less, but still be able to chase plenty living where I do.

As an admirer of photography, it seems undeniably that Hollingsworth's obsession has paid off --at least for the art world, if not for his own fortune. If you haven't been inspired to check out his photographs yet, please do so now. I also highly recommend "the history of the these photographs" link, which brings you to the aptly labeled, Extreme Instability.