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Jaw-dropping Photographs Capture the Sublime Power of Superstorms

Photographer Mike Hollingshead makes a living out of chasing and photographing extreme weather systems – and the fruits of his labor are guaranteed to fill you with awe.

All images featured with kind permission from Mike Hollingshead

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We're big fans of storm photography. Large-scale atmospheric phenomena make for remarkable studies in light, motion, color and contrast. Adding to their allure is the fact that these weather systems often exist only transiently. Storms can whirl into and out of existence with no warning, and predicting where they'll form is notoriously difficult – a bedeviling reality to which anyone in America's storm-prone heartland can attest. Capturing one on film can require years of patience, and no small amount of luck.

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All this is to say that tracking these weather systems is every bit as challenging, from a technical standpoint, as it is to photograph them. Hollingshead's work is an example of what can happen when these two skills unite in the same person. Over the past decade, he's transformed from casual dilettante to a full-blown storm hunter, capturing hundreds of incredible photos in the process.

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Hollingshead's portfolio of storm photography – which includes not only colossal supercell thunderstorms but tornados, lightning storms, and globulous mammatus clouds – is one of the best we've seen. We've featured a few of our favorite photos here, but you'll want to check out his extensive portfolio on his website and Facebook page.

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