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Dave Lewison - Mechanical Engineer
I'm Dave Lewison, and I live in Dutchess County NY,
nestled in the Mid-Hudson Valley. I'm a Mechanical
Engineer by trade, and I work in a large semiconductor
facility, making sure that the manufacturing machines
and processes are running properly. I also enjoy
"tinkering" at home, and have built many gadgets that
help me pursue my other passions; photography and
weather.
I've been interested
in photography for my entire life, and have devoted
countless days (and dollars) towards creating
interesting and technically challenging images. |
I have a particular interest in specialized photography
techniques, such as stop-motion, timelapse, and
long-exposure, but I also shoot scenic and abstract
images.
Another life long obsession has been weather, and
growing up I can remember many hours glued to the window
watching severe thunderstorms or snowstorms roll over my
home in Westchester County NY. Finally, in 1997, I got
the chance to combine these interests of photography and
weather, when I joined up with Cloud 9 Tours, a storm
chase tour group owned by Charles Edwards. Every year
since then, I've chased with a group of other chasers
from all over North America.
I met Scott McPartland on a couple of random chases back
in 2002 & 2003. We first teamed up in 2004, when we shot
the now infamous
Attica, KS tornado video. Since we both live in NY,
it made sense that we should pool resources and chase
together. And we've been doing that every year since.
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Scott McPartland
- Freelance Videographer
Hi, I'm Scott McPartland and I was
born and raised in Queens, NY and ironically enough, was
terrified of storms up until the age of 13. On August
29th, 1985 a severe storm rolled through my hometown of
Rego Park, Queens and I literally went from being
terrified of storms, to fascinated by them! In June of
1987 I purchased my first camcorder and began to
document severe weather out of the New York City area.
Whether it’s a severe storm, or a snowstorm, if it’s
happening in my area, I'm out filming it. |
I have no formal training in
Meteorology, but this hasn’t stopped me from learning as
much as I can about the weather and how it works. In May of 1999 I embarked on my
first out of state storm chase which took me to Iowa. I
have been chasing the Plains every year since. Starting
in 2005, I teamed up with fellow New Yorker Dave
Lewison.
In 2005, Dave and I teamed up for what would be the most
intense storm that either of us had ever witnessed,
Hurricane Katrina. We rode the storm out at the Hancock
Bank parking garage in Downtown Gulfport, MS. And later
that year Dave and I began work on a Hurricane Katrina
DVD along with fellow storm chaser Jim Edds that
chronicled Katrina’s first land fall along the east
coast of Florida, all the way up to her devastating hit
along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This DVD was well
received and both Dave and I made several trips back
down to the Gulf Coast over the next two years to see
the recovery process first hand, as well as take part in
various television and radio interviews about our
experiences during the storm.
During the off season, I keep busy by adding to my New
York City stock video archive, documenting winter storms
in and around New York City, licensing stock video to
the various networks, and doing stringer work for The
Weather Channel. But, it’s without a doubt storm chasing
that I look the most forward to and you can bet that
when the trees start to bloom in the spring, I'll be
hitting the road once again in search of the most
violent storms on Earth! Over the past 25 years, I have
witnessed and documented over 30 tornadoes, 9 land
falling hurricanes, and countless supercell
thunderstorms, hail storms, and New York City severe
weather, and winter weather events.
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