Catching the natural beauty of a storm or a tornado in a photo (or on video) is important for the majority of storm chasers. Some just want to document the tornado with the smart phone and post it on their Facebook page or Twitter but many put a lot of offert into composing a perfect photo of a supercell or tornado and use expensive cameras and lenses to do so. Storm photography is challenging and fun and can result in some spectacular photos if it is done right.
There are many difficulties related to storm and tornado photography though. You may not have much time to get the right settings or put up a tripod if there is a tornado on the ground as you constantly regroup so you need to be skilled and experienced to take a great photo under these circumstances. If you go for structure and lightning shots it is quite different and you have more time to get the settings and composition but photographing in the dark can prove to be difficult.
A few tour companies offer specific photography tours that differs slightly from normal storm chasing tours. These tours are offered to tour guests who chase mostly to get great storm photos and where photography during the tour is the highest priority (over thrills and adrenaline for example).
Practically, this usually means that photography tours can stay a bit further away from the storms to get more interesting compositions as well as more storm structure. This is opposed to get under the meso to see tornadoes up and close. This is however a decision the guide makes for every storm. Sometimes you go close and sometimes you stay further away. It is also possible that you will stay out a bit longer in the night on a photography tour to get lightning shots of a storm when other tours go back to the hotels.
Not only does storm chasing photography tours offer a lot of time to take photos but it is also a great chance to talk to other photographers and learn from each other as well as the tour guide. Expect a lot of discussions about camera settings, lenses etc in addition to the general storm talk.
Photography tours are usually run later in the season as this usually means chasing in the Northern Plains where the scenery is prettier, the storms are usually more picturesque and more isolated than Texas storms.
