It’s not an event filled with colorful, costumed characters, but Monsoon Con still draws a small but dedicated group following the Southwest’s mid-summer mini-season. It’s being held at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on Saturday.
Justin Northcraft enjoys the challenge of stormy weather photography. He tries to get rare pictures of lightning strikes and cloudbursts during the monsoon, and explains it takes patience to be in the right place at the right time.
“You can’t make the clouds part and things like that, so it’s a balance of understanding and just continuing to get out there and continuing to chase those storms," said Northcraft.
Monsoon Con attracts more than a hundred people sharing ideas and tips about weather forecasting, data collection, meteorology and more. Saturday’s event will feature several guest speakers and displays of phenomena associated with weather in the Southwest.
Liz Kemp is another photographer who aims to capture the unique images of that happen with every monsoon.
“You can be sitting on a hilltop with your camera, under the full sun, sweating it out in 100-degree temperatures but your camera could be pointed in another part of Tucson where the rain is coming down in torrents," she said.
Experienced storm photographers suggest using a tripod for stability, a wide-angle lens, and become familiar with massive cloud formations that might produce sudden, heavy rainfall along with streaks of lightning.
