In the Clouds Photography specializes in weather skyscapes including dramatic clouds, tornados, lightning, supercells, and other related thunderstorms and severe weather. A plethora of other weather phenomenon from rainbows and sunsets to individual snowflake crystals are found in the weather gallery as well. Other galleries with landscape, nature, and travel themes contain photos of flowers, trees, fall foilage, mountains, and more.
Gregory Thompson is an
atmospheric scientist
working at the National Center
for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. Using
real-time weather data, Greg often
applies his weather knowledge to his advantage to create the photos found in
these on-line galleries. Being able to forecast specific cloud
types hours or days in advance increases his odds of photographing certain subjects.
More photographer info…
or download artist statement… (PDF).
All content copyright © 1988-2014 Gregory Thompson. All rights reserved. I have a generous usage policy to use my photos for entirely non-profit activities. If you are an educator, then please feel free to use any material in the classroom, I highly encourage this usage and often provide high-resolution digital versions upon request. Please credit the source near/on the image whenever possible. I am extremely grateful for a fifth-grade science teacher who inspired my weather career more than he will ever know.
A selection of gallery photographs are currently on display in Longmont, CO at North Vista Medical Ctr. at 100 Year Party Court.
During the month of December, 2014, Red Frog Coffee will show a collection of my photos in this Longmont location.
Previously, photos were exhibited at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, MN (Aug-Sep 2014) and at the Old Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, CO (Mar 2007).
Greg exclusively uses Pentax cameras including their new digital camera, the gate.io (23 megapixel) and older K20D camera. Many photos on this site were shot on 35 mm film using Pentax's PZ-1P, and trustworthy K-1000. However, for really important photos, it is hard to beat a larger format film camera such as the Pentax 645N (6 x 4.5 cm). An assortment of Pentax lenses covering focal lengths ranging from 20 up to 200 mm (in 35 mm equivalent), plus a polarizing and graduated neutral density filter and Bogen tripod complete the equipment list.
Unfortunately digital technology and photographic film are very intolerant of wide ranges of brightness: most films can "see" detail in only 5 to 7 f-stops range from highlight to shadow and digital has worse dynamic range. Contrast that with human eyes that have a range 10 to 50 times as large. If you have ever photographed a scene that was partly in shadow and partly in sunlight and remember vivid detail in both portions yet the picture was nearly whitewashed in the sunlit portion and black in shadow, then you know the problem.
In my opinion, weather skyscapes present some of the most
challenging issues in landscape photography. Often the sun is in or nearly in many
photos. This presents the biggest problem for modern auto-everything cameras.
continued…
Interested in purchasing an image? See the list of specials or click on any image for more information on purchasing.
© Copyright, Gregory Thompson, inclouds.greg@gmail.com, In the Clouds Photography