"Just go out and shoot pretty pictures!"

While working at the Florida Times-Union, a former picture editor, Charles Kogod, offered me a bit of advice one slow news day. “Jim, just go out and shoot some pretty pictures!” Being a news photographer, I didn’t think that pretty pictorial or scenic could also go into the paper as a weather feature. Kogod knew what he was doing nurturing and developing photographers as The Director of Illustrations for National Geographic Books for many years. Now, he photographs, teaches and edits. http://www.charleskogod.com/

Sitting on the back deck, reading a book, I noticed a huge, white billowing cloud formation rising up from the easterly direction. Gabbing my cameras, our dog, Toshio, started to jump and dance around me as he’s always up for a good walk, We jumped in to the car and headed off to Manchester Dock to take pictures of the magnificent cloud over Seattle.

To this very day, almost 30 years later, I still take Charles’ advice to heart and go out to shoot pretty pictures. One this day, my instincts paid off and I was rewarded with an unusual weather feature.