Luckily for Latitude Image, newest partner Jon Van de Grift has “little interest in comfort.”
Instead, Jon prefers hefting survival gear and camera equipment up 2500 meters of rugged mountain sides to capture on film some of the Earth's most severe weather: from squall line thunderstorms to pyrocumulous clouds to monsoons to intense downslope wind events. “Everyone sees the bad part of natural disasters, but there's also a natural beauty to them,” Jon says. “That's what I'm trying to capture: the bright side of the dark side of nature.”
A fine art aerial photographer and a Professor of Earth Sciences, Jon, based in Colorado, USA, started photographing storms in the late 90s. What he learned along the way was the key to his success: preparation. “I spend a lot of time pre-visualizing my photos, preparing optical equipment and mountaineering gear [so that] when the weather finally shows up, I'm ready to go.” Jon avoids what he sees as the pitfalls of traditional storm-chasing-- “too much time spent driving around under dark clouds with poor lighting”-- by getting right into middle of the storms.
He admits that his expeditions, which can last anywhere from a day to a week and which always involve dangerous conditions, can be mentally and physically intense: “I'm often exhausted at the end of the week.” However, harkening back to that dislike for comfort, Jon doesn't spend much time lazing around; he heads straight back to the studio to “clean off memory cards, repair damaged equipment and body parts, and prep camera rigging for the next weather event.”
Jon's work has been showcased in special exhibitions, photography publications, and now, on Latitude Image. Jon, excited by his partnership with Latitude Image, says, “I am thrilled to be represented alongside some of the best aerial photographers in the world.”