My girlfriend convinced me to go stormchasing and I turned the experience into a climate change project. Together with a small group of friends and fans, including professional stormchaser Kelly DeLay - we set across the great plains of the USA to create a series of never seen before images of everyday people in front of massive storms.
More info: vonwong.com
The entire adventure took us across 7 different states
Anna Tenne & I posing for a quick selfie in front of a brewing lightning storm in Wyoming
We had 10-15 mins for setup and shooting
For most of the shots, we would have just 10-15 minutes to set-up and shoot before the storms would overtake us. Here, we had a massive supercell brewing on the horizon.
Just to capture the perfect shot
Joice Surcalo drove for over 4 hours just to model for us in this shot - bringing all of her personal clothes and props from home and experience a storm on her own first hand.
The weather conditions were pretty gnarly
Christian Holman, the model in the "toilet boy" shots played double duty as an assistant trying his best to shelter me from the elements.
The Sony A7r I used was not weather sealed.
Which almost didn't show in the final shots
Carrie Lewis brought her personal stash of alcohol and tanning chair to sunbath in front of this brewing storm in South Dakota.
A stark contrast to the chaos of setup and teardown
Photo by Anna Tenne capturing the absolute chaos of the teardown process as we tried our best to get out before the rain and hail would overtake us.
Our Ambulance protected the expensive lighting equipment
Photo & ambulance courtesy of Ryan Zimmerman who had a retrofitted ambulance that he generously offered to us for use as our chase vehicle.
We then transformed these shots into advertisements
Christian Holmann drove for over 4 hours, 2 states away to bring us a toilet with only 12 hours notice.
To help promote Cowspiracy
A backup sofa was kept in the Ambulance in case we had no models to pull off our shots. Here is Anna Tenne and Ryan Zimmermann modelling for me as video gamers.
In support of Climate Change Awareness
Doug Chapin brainstorming away - the first concept that Anna & I thought of when designing this shoot.
Huge thanks to stormchaser Kelly DeLay
Huge thanks to stormchaser Kelly DeLay for babysitting us.
The entire adventure was captured in this 2 minute video
Stormchasing on the great plains isn’t just about the thrill of the chase; it’s an opportunity to capture the raw, unfiltered power of nature. This intense experience can be likened to the emotional expressions found in different art forms, such as the endearing relationship-themed memes that perfectly capture the highs and lows of love.
While stormchasing might seem like an entirely different experience from the charming world of love memes, both evoke powerful emotions.
Just as memes capture the nuanced emotions of relationships, our adventure aimed to capture the raw beauty of nature in its true form.