Why I Chase | The Arizona Monsoon
A documentary film highlighting my last 5 years of storm chasing in Arizona. This film takes you on a personal journey of how I went from pilot to storm chaser. It also highlights the passion I have for Arizona’s landscapes and weather.
Introduction
I am often asked “Why did you make this film? What inspired you?” Truth be told, I needed a goal. I needed something to work hard towards. In a way I was raising the bar for myself. I wanted to take my work from where it was comfortable, to a place I had never gone.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills
-John F Kennedy | Moon Speech | September 12th, 1962
I chose to do this film, not because it would be easy, but because it would be hard. In many ways, the film was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It challenged everything I knew about filmmaking, and required me to learn a lot along the way.
There were many times that I thought this project was simply not meant to be. At one point, I had lost my entire project (hard drive crash) and wasn’t sure if I had the emotional strength to start the whole thing over. Thankfully, I was able to salvage some of what I had in the beginning and slowly piece it back together. By nature I’m not a quitter; instead, I like to think of myself as someone who finds a way to finish.
In the spring of 2015, I officially decided I wanted to do this project. I told myself, “you are going to make a 22:30 minute film. I wanted to take everything I had done the last few years and turn them into a captivating story that featured all my work.
I have produced several time lapse films and mini documentaries. While I’m very proud of them, for some reason I was left feeling like I had a lot more potential. After toying with the idea, I decided that setting this massive goal was the only way I was going to force myself to do it.
Don’t ever count yourself out. You’ll never known how good you are unless you try. Dream the impossible and go out and make it happen. I walked on the moon. What can’t you do?
– Eugene Cernan | Nasa Astronaut | From the film “The Last Man on the Moon”
The Evolving Story
When looking back on this project, it’s hard to believe that I took hundreds of time lapses, photographs, and videos to piece together a story. In the beginning, the story was constantly evolving. However, after many hours of planning, I decided that the story I wanted to tell was a personal story. The story would involve bringing the last five years of my life as a storm chaser and put them into a visually appealing and well-scripted documentary. In many ways, the film represents the passion I have for Arizona’s magnificent landscapes and incredible weather.
Capturing the beauty of Arizona’s landscapes and weather is my passion. As a filmmaker my goal was to capture both the familiar and unfamiliar parts of Arizona. Arizona is far from just a hot and dry desert. Instead, it is a vivid and colorful canvas that comes to life especially when there is weather. Its beauty is limitless, and it causes me to realize that as a filmmaker that “Light is My Only Boundary.” ™
Facts and Figures
Cameras: Nikon D610, Nikon D7000, Sony A6000, GoPro Hero 3+ Black
Lenses: Nikon 20mm F4, Nikon 50mm F1.4, Nikon 85mm F2.0, Sony 16 – 500mm F3.5 /F5.6
Miles: Over 50,000 miles driven
Time Lapses: Over 100,000 individual images were used to create the time lapses you see in this film.
Video: 50+ hours of video was shot and edited down for this film.
Places: 99.9 percent of this film was filmed in Arizona. This included amazing places such as; Grand Canyon National Park, The Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park, Sunset Crater National Monument, Horse Shoe Bend, Vermillion Cliffs, Superstition Mountain Wilderness, Four Peaks Wilderness Area, Tonto National Forest, Mogollon Rim, Phoenix, Tucson, Sedona, Yuma, Globe, Payson, Safford, Willcox, Benson, Maricopa, and many more.
Facebook Trending items on August 15th, 2015
Historical Tucson Microburst Time Lapse:
#1 Trending item on Facebook (August 15th, 2016).
Over 2 million combined
views on Facebook and Vimeo
Shared on popular sites all over the world including; The Weather Channel, AccuWeather, Capital Weather Gang, Daily Mail, PetalPixel, Gizmodo, and so much more.
Captured textbook example of wet microburst.
Watch Tucson Wet Microburst | August 8th, 2015
Arizona Weather Time Lapse and Stock Video Gallery
Tucson Wet Microburst | August 8th, 2015
A 4K time lapse of a strong thunderstorm that dropped a couple of wet microbursts. One in particular was...
Marana, Arizona Isolated Storm | August 9th
It was pretty neat to observe at storm from start to finish. I pulled off the highway when I saw a pair of...
Wet Microburst | Central Phoenix | July 31st, 2015
Time lapse of severe warned thunderstorm over central Phoenix. This time lapse shows a wet microburst over...
Bluemoon Illuminated Lightning Storm | Maricopa, Arizona | July 30th
A very electric isolated storm captured about an hour after sunset. The storm and landscapes are also...
Grand Canyon Partial Inversion | May 22nd, 2015
A holy grail time lapse capturing a sunset over the Grand Canyon, with clouds moving overhead, and partial...
Slow Motion Lightning | August 27th, 2015
Slow motion lightning captured from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport
DO NOT BROADCAST!
Any re-use, sale, download,...
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My Favorite Arizona Weather Images (2011 – 2016)
Additional Resources
What is the Monsoon? If you’d like to learn more about the North American monsoon, please visit this awesome webpage hosted by the Tucson National Weather service. What is the Monsoon?
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