Free Public Talk for Earth Week
Chasing Skyscapes: Photographing the Atmosphere's Best Displays
with NCAR Scientist and Photographer Gregory Thompson

BOULDER -- Photographs of severe thunderstorms, rainbows, sunsets, lightning, and tornadoes will bring the drama of nature to the Mesa Lab at the National Center for Atmospheric Research on Thursday, April 19, at 7:00 p.m. In a free public talk in honor of Earth Week, NCAR scientist and photographer Gregory Thompson will show and discuss some of his favorite portraits of the atmosphere.

Thompson's photos have been published in calendars and magazines--

most recently the March/April cover of Weatherwise. His storm video footage has been shown on The Weather Channel.

"Other people photograph landscapes; I do skyscapes," says Thompson. In the midst of a storm, "it's the magical light at play with the clouds" that inspires him. There's a strong connection to his scientific work, too. As a meteorologist, he knows how to predict the ideal conditions for his photographs. "Going out [on the Colorado plains] and verifying what I've forecast is a stringent test of my education," he says.

In his talk, Thompson will take questions and offer advice from his years photographing the sky. "There are some tips that are specific to weather photography," he says, "like, What do you do when it starts raining?" The answer? "Keep shooting. Dramatic weather is the whole point."

Thompson, an atmospheric scientist at NCAR since 1993, earned a bachelor's degree in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University in 1990 and a master's in atmospheric science from Colorado State University in 1993. He became interested in photographing the sky in college, when a professor required the class to write essays describing their photos of weather in scientific terms. That experience, combined with the spectacular displays of nature in Colorado, gave Thompson the photography bug.

NCAR's Mesa Lab is located at the west end of Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. Information: 303-497-1173. NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 66 universities offering Ph.D.s in atmospheric and related sciences.