Eye of the Storm:

On my off days I fly glider planes. This image was captured late in the season when thermals usually lose a lot of their strength. It was for this reason that I (and my pictured wingman) dared venture closer to some darker clouds that promised us enough lift to get enough altitude to soar back to our airfield.

Little did we know at the time that it would develop into a full fledged storm cell with zero fly-through visibility. Our gliders are rated for VFR (Visual Flight Rules) only, meaning we cant fly through opaque clouds, including sinking through them to land. We ended up playing chicken with pockets of clear air in the cloud, circling each other and searching for the next clear path through the constantly shifting storm.

I usually only have my iphone but we wanted to take some nice cloud shots to market our club, so this time I had my D850 + 28-300 on me, and I managed to grab this frame with the sliver of light passing through a wall of raging clouds. Safe to say, this will remain my ultimate brush-with-disaster, never again moment. Luckily the photographer always lives to tell the tale!