Now that the summer of 2013 has come to an end, I have much to reflect over.  The season began with much anticipation as I looked forward to my storm chasing trip with Michael Phelps, Randy Walton and Neely Gillcrist.  That waiting game was filled with a lot of anxiety after the spring tornado season took such a tragic turn of events bringing two monster tornadoes to Oklahoma.  The first EF5 storm hit Moore, OK on May 20th and caused major destruction.  Randy Walton was an eye witness to that storm as he was handling a tour for StormScapeLive.TV, along with Ben McMillan and their tour guest Angela Nicol of Christchurch, New Zealand.  Not long after that on May 31st, the second monster hit El Reno, OK taking the lives of three of the best professional storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Tim’s research and chase partner Carl Young.

As hard as it was to put those events out of my mind, I stayed the course and went through with my travel plans and what a trip it was.  I was exhilarated by the beauty of the northern plains states and marveled at the natural wonders I was privileged to see in person.  This trip renewed my spirit and I carried the glow of the trip for many weeks after returning home.  I have put together a couple videos but still have many clips to review over the winter months when we are freezing here in the northeast.  I have also processed a number of my photographs but having taken close to 1,000 shots, well that’s a lot of editing!

I took a couple little mini adventures around my local area but I didn’t post blogs about them.  I may do some mini stories over the winter when it’s too cold to go exploring.  One of these adventures was an awesome whale watch tour out of Plymouth and into Cape Cod Bay which was the best!  We had 3 humpback whales that gave us quite a show.  The day was bright and clear with perfect boating conditions.  I love being out on a boat, so exhilarating.

I’ve started a series of photos on local farms and I’m hoping to get around and about in the coming weeks to catch them in their full harvest glory.  I’m also excited to do a series on local churches.  New England is rich in history and there are many old country churches with their big bell towers and steeples that reach up towards heaven.  So if you don’t see any posts, know that I am working on a few photography projects that I will be sharing with you soon.

As the summer months were waning, one of my travel companions from the July trip unexpectedly passed away.  My friend and travel room mate, Neely Gillcrist.  Everyone in the Friends of StormScapeLive family was completely devastated by the news.  It is still hard for me to think about, let alone write about.  This is part of the reason my blog has been silent longer than I had planned.  On the day of her funeral, the FOSSL members held their own memorial on Mike Phelps’ website and chat.  While I was too upset to tune in live, I did prepare a short video in her memory which I am sure most of you have already seen but I will post it here in her memory.  I opted to go out with my camera that day and pay tribute to Neely by being out in nature as she so loved doing in her home of St. John, New Brunswick.

While we are still in the grieving process, life is going on at top notch speed around us as the seasons change from summer green to that of fall oranges and reds.  Here in Southern New England, colors started popping up in the first week of August!  I’ve compared notes with many friends across the country and we are definitely early this year.  Many of the ornamental fruit trees and shrubs are overflowing with fruit and berries this year so I’m assuming that it will be a long cold winter and the birds will have plenty of food available to them.

On a high note, two of my photos from last fall were in a photo contest for the National Weather Service New England – Boston, and they took first and third place.  The first place one has been featured on their website, Twitter page and Face Book page for the month of September and the third place photo will do the same in November.  I was hoping to get one picture in the top three and never expected two of them to win.  Here is the link to the FaceBook page:  http://www.facebook.com/US.NationalWeatherService.Boston.gov

I will leave you with some shots that I have taken in the last few weeks of summer, along with the video of Neely’s tribute.  Keep an eye out for new adventures!  You never know what I might capture in my lens.  Stay safe my peeps!