You may well be familiar with storm chasing thanks to Twister, the ‘90s cult classic that first really threw tornadoes onto the big screen. More recently, the 2024 Twisters reboot paid homage to what this particularly niche craft is all about.
But as faithful as those films are, they barely scratch the surface of what it really takes to get close to a storm, let alone capture it on camera. So, what is it actually like to be a storm chaser?
To find out, Artlist partnered with a team of creators willing to dive straight into the chaos. Veteran storm chasers Krystle Wright and Nick Moir led the charge — two of the most respected severe weather photographers working today, with decades of experience capturing extreme environments. Alongside them were travel filmmakers Josh Guvi and Christopher Balladarez, documenting the journey not just from a distance, but right inside the action.
Their mission? To chase down real-life tornadoes across Tornado Alley and bring back footage that shows storms like you’ve never seen them before — raw, emotional, and impossibly close. Footage that lives exclusively in the Artlist catalog.
Tornado Alley
“While adrenaline is part of the appeal of storm chasing, what I find truly fascinating is the organisation and structure of these storms, especially in Tornado Alley in the United States. So this year, we began our chase in Texas and were onto a tornado-warned storm within a couple of hours of getting off the plane,” Nick tells us. “We chased across Texas, Arkansas, into Mississippi, and then back through Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado.”
The team was right in the midst of Tornado Alley, a unique place that sees some of the highest tornado activity in the world. This is where warm, moist air from the Gulf collides with cold, dry air from the Rockies. This unique mix of geography and weather patterns creates the perfect conditions for powerful supercell storms and frequent tornadoes. There’s no better place to capture storm footage.
Nick’s mission was clear from the start. “My specific role was to get Krystle and the team into a good position to capture the structure of the storms and the severe weather they produce, including tornadoes.” Using his decades of experience, which includes covering major events such as the 2001 “Black Christmas” bushfire event in Australia and the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, Nick was able to determine where storms were likely to form, how they might move, and what hazards they might bring. He’s no stranger to capturing natural disaster footage. “When chasing a particular storm, I also study the radar in detail. Supercell storms have specific radar signatures that indicate where a tornado might be embedded, allowing you to position yourself relatively safely, even quite close.”
No matter how experienced Nick is, Mother Nature is an unpredictable beast, as the team soon found out. Creator Josh Guvi reflects that “the hardest part is how quickly things change. There was a moment where we were set up in a great spot, waiting for a potential tornado to drop — everything looked good, we were calm, cameras ready. And then out of nowhere, the whole storm shifted and moved straight over us. Our position went from safe to dangerous in seconds. We had to pack up and get out immediately. It was a reminder that nature doesn’t care about your plan. You’ve got to stay alert and be ready to move, fast.”
Picking the right gear
This unpredictable nature massively influenced the gear the team could use. For Josh, he “packed gear that could handle rough conditions and move fast. I used a mix of handheld and gimbal setups, but kept everything light and quick to set up. The goal was to stay flexible because once things start happening, you’ve only got seconds to react.”
Meanwhile, for seasoned storm chaser and photographer Krystle, her many years in the field have helped fine-tune and streamline her setup. “My go-to setup is the Leica SL3 with a 24-90mm. A huge factor in why I choose Leica is its unique colour profile and rendering that complements how I love to document the world around me. The 24-90mm is such a versatile lens that it covers 95% of what I want to shoot. It’s pretty rare that I need to use a telephoto lens. Many years ago, my camera kit had grown so much that it felt like it had become a burden. I switched to Leica and stripped my kit back to the absolute essentials, so that the camera felt like a joy again and my back was far happier with less weight to carry.”
For cinematographer Christopher Balladarez, the weather was the main consideration. “Thankfully, Canon has some really good weather sealing on their bodies! I went with the Canon C80, the Canon R5c, and some zoom lenses. You would think that if you’re storm chasing, you’ll be in a lot of rain, but chances are, if you’re in rain, you’re not going to get a good shot. Storm chasers like Nick and Krystle chase to capture beautiful images and try to get into a position close enough for a great shot, but far enough from getting smacked by 4-inch hail!”
The challenge of documenting storms
While 4-inch hail sounds pretty threatening, Nick assures us that “you might think the greatest hazards while storm chasing are tornadoes, hail, or lightning — but by far the biggest danger is fatigue, and the driving — either by you or others on the road, especially in poor conditions.”
Krystle agrees. “Storm chasing is hard work and a stroke of luck! We spend so many hours on the road, and there’s numerous factors to navigate every chase — cell service, road network, fuel stations, other drivers, other chasers, interpreting forecasts, weather radar, and then of course the spontaneity of Mother Nature. Other drivers, whether they are chasers or not, are probably one of the most terrifying unknowns to encounter, as I’ve seen some strange behaviour, including drivers crossing over the ditch to start driving up the wrong way on the interstate in the midst of a storm.”
The team certainly spent a lot of time on the road, Chris tells us. “We drove through, like, five states. In the middle of America there aren’t that many healthy places to eat, so that was a challenge…it was at least a 4-5 hour drive to get to our target area for the next day, so that means getting to our hotels super late, dumping footage and then waking up extremely early to get back on the road. It’s a lot on the body and mind, but everyone was extremely good company, so it made it really smooth.”
“I’ll admit I can get a little grumpy after several thousand miles and not much sleep,” laughs Nick. He goes on to explain how having a great team is essential — “This was Krystle Wright’s fourth U.S. chase with me, and we’ve become a highly effective team. It takes a rare kind of determination to get the best possible photo or video in these situations, and very few people have that level of commitment.”
Getting the shot
That’s why Artlist picked this crew of four, because they were so committed to that goal of getting the best possible photos or videos. Josh reminisces on his favourite moment: “When we got our first tornado, I knew right away I didn’t want to just focus on the tornado itself — I wanted to focus on Krystle and her reaction to it. It was a rushed, hectic moment, everything moving fast, but I made one decision: whatever happened, I wasn’t going to stop rolling. We jumped out of the car, and I followed her as she ran toward the tornado — her reaction was so raw, so real. That kind of emotion, with this massive tornado towering in the background… You almost never catch something that honest on camera. It was wild — and it felt like the moment.”
Chris enthuses, “I’ve learned that when situations like that happen, you just have to roll everything and don’t stop recording, because you never know what’s going to happen. I can’t wait for that footage to come out!”
For Krystal, there was another moment that really stood out. “We could sense the possibility of positioning ourselves for some mammatus clouds at sunset and started driving north on a lonely road that weaved through barren desert hills. Mile by mile, we edge our way out of the dull grey of the storm behind us, and in the distance, the mammatus were beginning to emerge. By the time we decide to commit to a location, I remember stepping out of the vehicle and immediately being entranced as in one direction, the mammatus clouds are changing from golds to pinks, and in the other, the most impressive godlike rays are streaming through the clouds. I like to celebrate those moments just as much as the intense storm chasing moments… It’s all magic to me!”
Navigating the fear factor
Naturally, when up close and personal with such immense, destructive forces, fear comes into play. How could a storm chaser or filmmaker ever hope to stay calm while trying to capture such destructive storm footage?
Krystle does her best to unpick this complicated facet of the craft. “Fear is an asset that keeps me alive. If there is ever a situation that I don’t feel good about, even if I can’t articulate or reason why, I still carry enough faith to trust those gut instincts. In my first season of storm chasing, I was absolutely out of my comfort zone as everything was new to me. But each season I return to storm chasing, I continue to build up more experience, more knowledge, and familiarity so that I can make the right decisions, especially when we are in the thick of the action.”
It’s about experience, she emphasises. “I can assure you that the adrenaline still pumps every storm chase, but perhaps with experience, the adrenaline evolves to a point where it’s more controlled and attuned to seeking out specific aspects of storm chasing.”
For Josh, it was a case of “you don’t really think — you just do. You fall back on muscle memory and trust your team. We knew our roles, kept it simple, and stayed focused. You don’t get fancy out there — you just stay steady and keep rolling.”
With new learnings and experiences, he offers advice to other creators chasing epic moments like this…“Be patient, be safe, and be ready for anything. These moments are unpredictable — they don’t wait for you to get set up. But beyond just chasing something incredible, try to give it meaning. Context matters. Humanize what you’re seeing. Try to capture the emotion you felt in that moment, because that’s what people connect to. That’s what stays with them.”
And Chris chimes in, reminding us all to “not go alone and inexperienced. A lot of injuries and deaths have happened like that. Go with someone who does have some time chasing. You’d be surprised how many chasers will welcome you with open arms and show you the path. Learn forecasting, learn meteorology, and get into the community. It’s all about safety.”
Why chase storms
For seasoned pros like Krystle and Nick, safety has always been paramount. And it’s clear to see that there’s an alluring, addictive nature to this craft. “People chase storms for many reasons,” Nick theorises. “For some, it’s scientific, gathering data to better understand tornado formation and improve global warning systems. Others chase specifically to provide ground-truth reports, confirming radar signatures and helping issue timely warnings. Many tornado warnings have actually originated from chaser reports.”
For Nick, he feels it’s all of those things combined, and perhaps something more. “It’s like why surfers surf, or why people jump out of planes. All the noise and nonsense of everyday life vanishes, and your focus becomes razor-sharp. It’s liberating. And to see the excitement, joy, and elation on the faces of those I take with me — that’s immensely gratifying.”
“Imagine a day where it starts like any other day, bluebird sky with not a cloud to see anywhere,” describes Krystle. “Around lunch time, there are small clouds forming, but it’s hard to fathom that within a couple of hours, the entire sky can turn so dark and black that you’d mistake 3pm as if it were nighttime. The monsters that roll through the big open skies of the Midwest attract storm chasers from all over the world every spring because of this power, and it’s humbling to see every time.”
In the catalog
What this crew captured was the result of experience, instinct, and the kind of risk-taking that most of us would rightly fear. Shot on the road, in the chaos, and sometimes just 300 yards from a tornado, this is the real deal: authentic footage from inside real-life storms, captured exclusively for Artlist. It’s raw, it’s emotional, and it’s available now — only on Artlist. Whether you’re building an ad, a trailer, or a cinematic short, this is the kind of hurricane storm footage that turns heads and holds attention. Thanks to our team of storm chasers and creators, you can now create eye-catching videos with footage you can’t find anywhere else. Whether it’s capturing the sounds of Iceland or documenting the island slipping beneath the ocean, Artlist goes to extremes to bring you world-class footage — no matter how wild the weather gets.
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