Are you afraid of lightning or of the crashing sound of thunder? It is an opportunity for some great photographs for storm-chasers and weather photographers! In this article, we talk to storm-chaser Chantal Anders about her experience with weather photography and how she portrays nature with her camera.
The beginning
As a child, Chantal was afraid of lightning, like any other child of her age. Her father, who also used to photograph lightning and storms with an analogue camera, reassured her that they were safe at home and would always lead her outside onto the balcony. It was Chantal’s grandfather who gifted her an analogue camera, and later, a digital camera. As a curious teenager, Chantal managed to photograph lightning one night when she was supposed to be asleep.
Then the fire was lit. I threw myself at everything that came in front of my lens and of course, I kept trying to photograph lightning.
Chantal’s first proper lightning image was captured in 2014
It wasn’t until 2007 that Chantal bought her first DSLR camera and started gaining knowledge about the basics of photography, including composition and exposure triangle. In 2011, she heard about Stormchaser Ruhrgebiet, a small group of people devoted to storm-chasing and photography. The situation, however, did not allow her to join and learn from the team. In 2017, while she was photographing a storm from a field, she met the team and joined them. Even after chasing storms for about ten years, she has not overcome the fear of thunderstorms.
To this day I have not completely lost my fear of thunderstorms. If I’m not chasing, I at least have to stand at the window and see what happens out there.
Supercells are the queen of thunderstorms and can produce large hailstones and tornadoes
Planning behind the chasings
Like many other genres of photography, storm-chasing requires planning. For photographing thunderstorms, Chantal and her team make the initial planning 1 or 2 days ahead of the event. This is done with the help of weather radars and weather apps like Skywarn. However, the target region is marked out on the event day, which is adjusted according to the formation and path of the thunderstorm. Chantal points out the importance of working as a team in such situations:
There are always at least two of us on the road so that one can keep an eye on the weather radar and the other can concentrate on the road.
Thunderstorms can produce positive lightning
Safety is the first priority
For Chantal and her team, the topmost priority is safety and self-protection. Staying far away from trees and other objects ensures that even if the storm hits directly, they are safe from flying objects. And in case of a hailstorm or nearby lightning strikes, seeking shelter inside a car ensures safety. However, nature is unpredictable and even after meticulous planning and precautions, accidents happen.
A massive wall of thunderstorms captured at daytime
In 2022, while Chantal was photographing a thunderstorm from a safe distance, a positive lightning hit less than 100 meters away from her. These types of lightning are rare and dangerous. They can strike up to 10 miles away from the parent thunderstorm and carry a peak charge of up to 1 billion volts.
At night, it is relatively easy to capture lightning with long exposures
Chantal recalls another incident from 2023 where she had to survive a super-cell crossing overhead. This was caused by an erroneous report from weather radar damaged by the same thunderstorm. She stood in the path of a hailstorm producing up to 6 cm of hails and powerful wind which almost tipped over her car.
We were worried that the window would crack and I was also worried that the car would tip over with the way the wind was pulling on it.
Clouds blocking the sunlight can create such broken rainbows
Equipment for storm-chasing and weather photography
Chantal uses a Canon R6 and R6II paired with an array of prime and zoom lenses covering from 11 to 600 mm of coverage with 70-200 mm being her favourite one. To fight the strong winds, sturdy tripods like Leofoto Ranger RF-324c become necessary. These cameras and lenses are accompanied by remote shutter release, rain cover and Miops Smart Plus trigger. She also uses a DJI Mini 2 drone to get an aerial view of the thunderstorms.
This photo shows one of many thunderstorms produced on this day that caused flooding
Along with photography, Chantal and her team document these storms with GoPro and dashcams. They are also equipped with anemometers and reports from apps like Skywarn. They receive forecast and radar images from Kachelmannwetter.
Portrayal of nature
In the age of AI and manipulative images, Chantal chooses reality over beauty. She notes that the real situation looks different from what is captured with the camera. Her processing is driven by her perception and emotion derived from the field experience. While she occasionally creates composite images from multiple frames taken from the same position and angle, a common practice for lightning photography, she feels the importance of conveying the original process to the audience.
This transparency is important to me. One of my goals is to make people aware of the weather. Nowadays many people no longer look at the sky.
Noctilucent clouds are formed in the mesosphere and are visible only during nautical and astronomical twilight in the summer months
It is a harsh truth that people have become distant from nature and the associated truth. And this has resulted into conspiracy theories like chemtrails. Chantal, along with her team, strives to convey the truth, beauty and danger to people, making them aware of the real situation “out there”.
The autumn leaves create a harmony with the rainbow colours
Chantal Anders is a 33-year-old weather photographer and a storm-chaser from North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and a member of Stormchaser Ruhrgebiet. She has taken up photography as a part-time job along with her main job of accounting. Along with weather photography, she loves to shoot portraits of children, dogs and horses. She wishes to visit America in the next few years with her father for a storm-chasing tour.
Captured from Sauerland, the image shows a sundog (towards the left)
You can check more of Chantal’s images on Instagram.
