I’m just beginning this site as of April 7, 2009, so please bear with me. I have an old blog on Blogger and am wondering whether or not I should import it. Something tells me just starting fresh would be ideal.
If you want to know more about me, I’m Natalie Kilpatrick born in 1981 in Omaha, NE and have lived in the Omaha metro my entire life. I went to Fort Calhoun Elementary and High Schools and graduated from ITT Technical Institute in Omaha with an Associates Degree in Computer Networking Systems Technology.
I am currently employed with a company called Eye-Fi, Inc. who manufactures Wi-Fi enabled SD cards for digital cameras. Yes, I get paid an hourly wage to take pictures all day long, and the pictures don’t even have to be good!
I can’t even tell you when my first storm chase was because I was most likely screwing around like any teenager does when I followed my first storm. I’m not a super serious OMG freak about chasing storms, only because of the money. I don’t have a lot to spare, which usually leaves me with a 10+ year old car, no cell phone, no laptop and only a digital camera.
Last year I sold my digital camera that had been on me with multiple chases and lightning shoots, a Minolta DiMage 7i that I bought for $1,000. It’s now in the hands of a co-worker’s ex-wife which I sold to him for $50. But came the replacement, a Nikon D70s that I picked up from a different co-worker at Eye-Fi and it does everything that I need it to do. The biggest pluses being a) it’s a D-SLR, not SLR-Like like the Minolta was and b) it has bulb setting for those super long lightning shots I love taking.
The new year has also blessed me with a cell phone. I purchased a Blackberry Pearl that I can now use for chasing. Not to mention the company issued iPhone that I can possibly talk someone into letting me take on a chase if I ask nicely.
2009 is the first year that I ever attended a Spotter Training Class and it is something that I should’ve done when I was 18. While there I met some people from Heartland REACT and got a business card so that I can enroll. I feel like I don’t belong because I do not possess a HAM Radio License, so I will be testing for that in May, 2009. I got hooked up with a guy who will be selling me his Yaesu VX-3R and a 440 HT antenna for $125, which is just what I need in the price range I can afford. I don’t want a mobile unit, just a handheld unit is good enough for me.
So that’s my story, more to come for sure. I look forward to you visiting my site on a regular basis as I have more to share and you should definitely look forward to seeing my lightning pictures.
Enjoy!
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