A Chance Meeting
How do you meet a meteorologist? Purely by chance for me. Over five years ago, I was at Four Lakes Ski Area in Lisle, Illinois at a Meetup outing.
Meetup groups are a way to “connect with others who share your unique interests and passions.” On that cold Saturday morning in February, the Naperville Photo Meetup was photographing a special event featuring skiers in Halloween costumes.
A woman who looked familiar walked up and handed me her card. It was Mary Kay Kleist, CBS2 Chicago Meteorologist.
She was looking for photos of a costumed skier to run on her weather report that evening. In addition, her teenaged son was snowboarding, and she asked if I had taken his photograph.
She only handed out cards to two other photographers. Puzzled, I asked why she didn’t hand out more cards. It turned out that we were the only three photographers using big telephoto lenses.
I was thrilled to see my costumed skier photo on the evening weather segment. And I sent Mary Kay a picture of her son in midair coming off a mogul. Ever since, when subject matter and timing work out, I send her a Chicago area photo.
Bare trees
Travel is great, but I’m usually at home in Naperville. Finding local photo opportunities is important.
Springbrook Forest Preserve in Naperville is my favorite. Last Thursday, conditions looked promising for a colorful sky at sunset. And the Preserve’s bare trees can produce stark images with interesting, high contrast shapes.
I set up with a telephoto lens to isolate a line of trees against the horizon. Springbrook is seldom crowded, but there were numerous photographers with serious telephoto lenses there.
A couple walking by told me about a rare owl alert posted on a bird watcher’s network. They were at Springbrook along with numerous others to find and photograph an elusive owl.
When they walked away, I noticed they were headed in the direction of my composition. I turned my exposure down to produce a silhouette and waited.
The couple stopped momentarily in a small gap and I pressed the shutter. Since it was only 4:40 pm I had enough time to process the photo and email it to Mary Kay for possible use on the 6:00 pm weather.
It’s still a thrill to see one of my photos on television.
Part of my Thanksgiving is to thank each one of you for taking the time to view the Friday Photo.
Chuck Derus