The future hurricane Alex is now forming in what is turning out to be a pressure-cooker in the Caribbean and it is has potential to be a devastating storm for the Gulf Coast, specifically, Louisiana. Th Euro is depicting what could be at minimum, a Category 3 strength hurricane with New Orleans and Baton Rouge as its primary targets. I know Accuweather meteorologists have been accused of hying up storms this year, but was it really hype? have we not received pretty much what they predicted. It is difficult to root through the true hype peddled by main-scream media, but these guys are presenting the science as they see it in an effort to prepare people and save lives. I would put my money on Joe Bastardi over the National Hurricane Center any day.

I was recently interviewed for an Accuweather story about the use of social media for reporting weather, specifically, enthusiasts. Here is the link: http://www.accuweather.com/video/97822142001/social-medias-influence-on-storm-chasing.asp

A couple of my favorite excerpts:

There is a growing meme that Mr. Obama is too impressed by credentialism, by the meritocracy, by those who hold forth in the faculty lounge, and too strongly identifies with them. He should be more impressed by those with real-world experience. It was the "small people" in the shrimp boats who laid the boom.

There is still a sense about Mr. Obama that he needs George W. Bush in order to give his presidency full shape and meaning. In this he is like Jimmy Carter, who needed Richard Nixon, or rather the Watergate scandal, which made him president. Mr. Carter needed Richard Nixon standing in the corner looking like he'd spent the night sleeping in his suit as it hangs in the closet. The image is from Joe McGinnis's "The Selling of the President, 1968." Mr. Carter needed to be able to point at Nixon and say, "I'm not him. He dirty, me clean. You hate him, like me." Carter's presidency was given coherence and meaning by Nixon, Watergate, and without it that presidency seemed formless. Mr. Obama, in the same way, needs Mr. Bush standing in the corner like Boo Radley, saying "Let's invade something!" But Mr. Bush is wisely back home in Texas finishing a book, and the president never sounds weaker than when he suggests his predicament is all his predecessor's fault.

I think Ms. Noonan article highlights the effect of this ineptitude on the view of mainstream media and those just left of center. The complete lack of executive experience of any kind whatsoever has never been more evident during his presidency than during this crisis. Anyone who has ever managed a project knows at the very least the President should be meeting weekly with the governors of the stats who have been impacted to find out what they need and how he can help them. He coud accept the offers of foreign assistance, like that offered by the Dutch, by wiaving the Jones Act. He could do things like make sure that red tape  does not stand in the way of oil vacuums being grounded while the Coast Guard counts life jackets or waiting weeks on end to only approve 2 of the requested barrier island rebuilding that Governor Bobby Jindal requested. His leadership has been absent. Cursing in a TV interview only shows that he thinks he is Patton when he is more like Carter.Perhaps worst of all, instead of problem-solving, he has devoted his energy to pushing his ridiculou National Energy Tax (Cap and trade) which will only further damage our weak economy.

Upper St. Clair, PA

For the last three summers, I have been on a quest to photograph lightning. At first, I blindly tried to just snap the shutter fast enough and then I realized I would rarely be fast enough, so I delved into some research. There are a lot of websites that tell you how to adjust your camera settings to grab the right shot but one basic rule of thumb applies: get the exposure is long as you can. In general, long exposure is achieved by either shooting in a dark setting or by using a small aperture and low ISO. For daytime lightning, in addition to to a small aperture and low ISO, I have started using either a neutral density or polarizer filter, or sometimes both lightning shots to achieve a longer exposure. Some advice tells you to set your camera to Bulb, the F-stop to 8, and ISO to 100 and leave it there, but you will quickly find that those settings work pretty much at night, only.

The other key ingredient is location. I am always on the hunt for the perfect location. At first I had high hopes of capturing a lightning bolt right over the Pittsburgh cityscape but I quickly learned there are a couple of problems with that. First, nearly all our storms come from the south-west, which means  that while standing at Mt. Washington or the West End Overlook and facing the city, the storm is coming over your left shoulder. Secondly, by the time lightning is over the city it is either raining too hard or the lightning is too dangerously close to be standing out on an overlook. I would love to find a location in the South Hills that gives me a clear, open vantage point to the west or south-west. That spot still eludes me. If I lived somewhere  where you could actually see storms coming, I would focus more on composition. Quite honestly, it is very difficult in Western PA. In most cases, the storm is very close before you can see the lightning, so you have a very brief time, with limited opportunities for interesting composition. Maybe I will catch something on vacation out west where you can see the storms for a long time before they arrive.

Lastly, you really can't expect to get a great shot without a solid tripod. The longer I shoot any type of landscape photography, the more valuable I find my tripod.

Not that we are into June, we really only have another 3-6 weeks left where we can expect strong thunderstorms, so I realize these might be the last decent shots I get this year.

South Park, PA

I have benefited from a number of good photography resources lately and I thought it would be a great idea to post the links here and invite you to add to my list in the comments.

 Podcasts/Video

• The Digital Photo Experience
• Photo Focus

 Photo Learning Centers

• Adorama
• Canon Digital Learning Center

 Blogs

• Canon 5D Tips

• Digital Photography School

• Microsoft Pro Photography

• Rick Sammon (Thanks Jennifer Bunce!)
• The Digital Photo Expereince

• Phillip Bloom

Forums

Canon Digital Photography Forums

Books and Magazines

• Photographing the Southwest - Laurent Martres (Three Volumes)

• John Shaw's Landscape Photography

• Popular Photography

Last but not least, Flickr. If you aren't studying the EXIF data on photos you like, you are really missing out.

 You might be thinking, "I don't have time to read these sites every day." Me either and you don't have to. You can either subscribe to an RSS feed or wait until you have a few hours and catch up on the feeds. Don't depend on feedback from your peers or Flickr, go learn from the pros. It's free and it's more effective.

If you haven't found it yet, you can track our vacation planning and updates at http://seetheparkswithus.com

Before:

After

Still too much vignetting, but that for another day.