“In early June of 2013,” Mike remembers, “my buddy Andy and I flew out to Denver for a short, three-day chase trip. I set out to time-lapse as much as possible, from Arizona to the central US and it's been a blast of a journey.”īut he hasn’t limited himself to lightning and dust storms. Yet people would pay for this footage? It sent me down the path where I am today. The crazy thing was, I'd do this for free. "People wanted that video for various projects, from A/C commercials to Al Gore using it for climate change talks. That experience taught Mike that good weather footage was valuable.
"Doom:" A dense wall of dust rides Interstate 8 southwest towards Yuma on July 9th, 2018, by Mike Olbinski, used with permission. The enjoyable part was the fact I called the video ‘ Massive Haboob Hits Phoenix,' which is a real meteorological weather term, and by that next night, it was being said all over national news.” At 5 A.M., CNN called, the Today Show called and yes, The Weather Channel called! It was insane. The video went viral almost immediately and was being shown on late night news shows across the country. “And so I raced home, put the time-lapse together, posted it online, and within an hour my life was going nuts.
I thought to myself, if I time-lapse this and do it well, I might finally end up with something the Weather Channel might enjoy. It truly looked like the end of the world a scene out of Independence Day when the ships roll over New York and cities around the world. When I arrived at the parking garage and looked at it rolling over South Mountain, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. “Little did I know, it would be a historic dust storm, measuring over a mile high and 100 miles wide. I knew if I could capture a time-lapse of a dust storm hitting downtown Phoenix, it would show people everywhere how big these things are and how they can dwarf an entire city. A friend texted me about a big dust storm coming into southeast Phoenix and so I packed up my gear and headed to a spot only a quarter mile away from my house that I had scouted weeks before. “My first ever attempt at it was July 4, 2011, but it was the following day that would change everything for me. Here’s how he describes his eventful first attempt: Mike’s passion for shooting lightning morphed into a desire to do time-lapse photography. "Power and Fury:" A positive lightning strike exits the top of a severe thunderstorm near I-10 and Salome Highway, by Mike Olbinski, used with permission.
#Image of mike at the weather wall full#
The image on our cover has no lightning, but Mike’s skill in capturing the sun light over the Grand Canyon is on full display. He picked a great place to do that - during the monsoon season, the average number of strikes across Arizona is a whopping 421,000. Mike is based in Phoenix, Arizona where he’s lived his entire life, honing his passion for photographing lightning by watching the wild skies there light up.
#Image of mike at the weather wall how to#
It's no wonder that what first drew me to photography over 10 years ago now inspired my desire to learn how to shoot lightning.” “I grew up watching thunderstorms with my dad on our back patio,” Mike told us, “and vividly remember a time when a bolt hit just a few hundred feet behind our house. When he added photography to his list of interests, the world got a treasure. Mike Olbinski, who took the stunning photo that is the cover of our 2020 catalog, was destined to be a weather buff from a young age.
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