Published: May 02, 2009 12:58 pm      

Storm chaser: Vinco veteran captures beauty of nature's wrath

VINCO — Ron Shawley loves weather, and the more lively and dangerous it is, the better.

“I just love it,” he said enthusiastically. “You get such a rush.”

The 50-year-old disabled U.S. Navy veteran has been photographing weather phenomena for years and posts many of his shots on AccuWeather’s Web site.

“Taking pictures has always been a hobby of mine, and I think that if you take pictures, you should share them with people,” said Shawley, a self-proclaimed backyard meteorologist and storm chaser. “Weather is important to everyone and is taken for granted, so I just love to do this and try to capture that optimum picture.”

Shawley said the Laurel Highlands region – in particular the Chickaree Mountain area – is a great place to photograph weather because of the four seasons it experiences.

“In our region, storms can happen at any time,” he said.

“Right now, early spring, is my favorite time of the year to shoot because of the active weather we can get.”

He said his favorite weather activity to shoot is lightning because it’s so unpredictable and dangerous.

“If you’re able to capture lightning, it’s a beautiful thing and a real gold mine,” Shawley said. “I’ll probably take

800 shots to get just one good one, but I love when lightning is all around me.”

And shooting lightning has led to some close calls. One time Shawley was so close to the strike site that he felt the electric shock surge through his body.

“People tell me I’m nuts, and why take the risk of getting seriously hurt,” Shawley said.

“But for me, I just love the beauty of it all, and you are capturing a moment in time that we will never see again.”

Shawley also has clocked wind speeds for AccuWeather on Chickaree Mountain – a few gusts reaching more than

80 mph – and chased down mini-tornadoes in the northern part of Cambria County.

“Oh man, those are some of the best storms ever,” he gleefully said.

What keeps him photographing weather is the hope that he’ll luck out one of these days and capture an unknown phenomena.

“We see new types of weather every day, like vertical lightning, so who knows what you can shoot next?” Shawley said. “If in some small degree I’m helping the scientists, well, so be it.”

Although Shawley isn’t taking his photos to make any profit, he has sold some shots to national newspapers and has had an artist reproduce a weather shot in paintings.

“I’m not in this for money; for me this is something that should be fun,” he said.

It’s hard for Shawley to pick one photo that is his favorite, but he said he is extremely proud of a sunset picture he took in Johnstown in January 2008. The photo has received rave reviews and a top rating from other posters on the AccuWeather site.

“Of course, my lightning

photos also are my favorites,” he said.

Besides weather, Shawley likes to photograph wildlife and has been experimenting with night photography. He even tried his hand at shooting paranormal activity on the battle-grounds in Gettysburg.

He has taken his love for all things weather one step further and co-founded AccuKidz, an interactive site sponsored by AccuWeather that encourages elementary- and middle-school pupils and homeschooled children to get involved with weather activity.

Shawley noted that through the site kids are able to post their own pictures and videos of local weather. They also can create AccuKidz teams – where schools can work together on projects and share data and use the free forums and blogs to talk about weather with other students from across the world.

“We encourage children, schools and the general public to sign up for this free service,” he said.

In the meantime, Shawley plans to keep snapping away and hopes that one day he’ll be able to go out West with AccuWeather to chase down and photograph larger tornadoes.

“I’d get bored if I wasn’t doing something,” he said with a laugh.