David Piano: Photographer & Storm Chaser

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David Piano: Photographer & Storm Chaser

30 year old storm chaser and photographer based in Ingersoll, ON. Seeking the thrills of the world around us and the forces that shape our planet.

09/07/2026

August featured a solar & a lunar eclipse and I was fortunate enough to witness both from very different locations around the world. The breathtaking low-angle solar eclipse on Aug. 12 was the centerpiece of my recent trip to Spain, and detailed planning gave us a perfect result. We initially were hoping to see the eclipse on the north coast, but cloud cover forced us to pivot to a backup option. The backup location was just over an hour south in a much drier airmass with clear skies. We set up on a hilltop in Castroverde overlooking a valley in the countryside. Even with this being my 3rd total eclipse, the feeling of totality sweeping overhead brought the same ethereal feelings as those before. The sight of such a magnificent astronomical event will never get old...and we are lucky to bear witness to such a perfect coincidence in time/space within our solar system. The solar corona was the largest and most striking of the 3 total eclipses I have seen (2017, 2024, 2026) and had a golden hue from a diffuse layer of wildfire smoke in the atmosphere.

The lunar eclipse on the evening of Aug. 27 was a deep partial eclipse (96% coverage) still allowing the classic rusty red hues to show. I was on a trip in the southern Canadian Rockies at the time and decided to view the eclipse over Maiden Lake in Fernie. The maximum eclipse was at a low angle in the sky, allowing for a nice composition including the water, trees/landscape and the sky.

09/03/2026

Where do I begin!?

WHAT A CHASE DAY IN SW ONTARIO!!

Storms intercepted today included:

1. An early afternoon supercell which we followed from E London to SE of Dorchester. This storm produced large hail and severe winds in London/Dorchester but we were staying ahead of it to monitor tornado potential so didn't really experience the core.

2. DESTRUCTIVE bow-echo near Zurich in south Huron County. This storm gave both the bark & the bite with a staggering mean & sculpted shelf cloud. As it barreled over us, gusts to 120+km/h shredded trees, snapped hundreds of limbs between Zurich and Exeter and uprooted/snapped numerous healthy trees. Several hydro poles were also snapped with some structural damage to farm buildings as well.

3. To cap the chase day, we ventured into Lambton County to catch a beautiful supercell storm near Oil Springs. We experienced hail to quarter size and 80-90km/h winds with this storm.

Was awesome to reunite with my long-time chase partner for this event!

09/02/2026

Life is waiting for you.

Book that trip you've been putting off for years...live out the experiences you've always dreamed of. There is no better time than right now. Time is the most precious resource at our disposal, something that is infinitely valuable. You never know when it will run out.

My backpacking trip last week in Kootenay National Park reminded me just how special and breathtaking the natural world can be and how its grandeur can make you feel insignificant. I stopped in my tracks many times to take in the scope of the sheer cliffs of Floe Peak and the crystal clear emerald waters of Floe Lake at its base, one of the most striking landscapes I have had the privilege to experience.

07/25/2026

A couple of my latest deep-sky targets, the Fireworks Galaxy and the Splinter Galaxy imaged with my telescope.

The Fireworks Galaxy is a grand design spiral galaxy with a dense stellar field in the foreground. Every individual star in our night sky is contained within the Milky Way, so every star you see is in our home galaxy with the Fireworks Galaxy residing in distant space.

The Splinter Galaxy is also a spiral galaxy but with an edge-on view from Earth giving it a narrow disc or "splinter" shape.

07/19/2026

Whale's mouth early this afternoon near Port Burwell as a strong cluster of storms began to move over Lake Erie. Quite a bit of tree damage between Straffordville and Lake Erie, although chasing was tough today with a lot of competing updrafts making things a bit messy.

07/14/2026

Today, extremely hot and dry conditions in NW ON resulted in the most explosive wildfire behaviour I've ever seen on satellite. At peak heating, Armstrong reached 40C with a dewpoint of only 11C. Westerlies gusting to 30KT created the perfect storm to fan a number of pre-existing small fires into a colossal firestorm. The WX camera at Armstrong Airport caught a glimpse of a pyrocumulonimbus cloud on it's N facing view, a fire induced thunderstorm towering to about 40,000 ft. On the W facing view, another fire races towards the Armstrong Airport from the western horizon, a truly apocalyptic scene.

The smoke plume from this string of fire activity will largely miss Southern Ontario tomorrow, but by Wednesday afternoon it will darken our skies in a way we've never seen in recent memory. The model outputs for smoke density in Southern Ontario on Wednesday are so far beyond anything I have ever seen, it is almost unbelievable to comprehend...

07/08/2026

Months of pre-planning are behind this shot, which I am calling "The Sparkle of Life." It all started when I noticed a beautiful lonesome tree while driving through the Oxford County countryside and came to the realization the setting sun must align nicely with the tree near the summer solstice. I began to imagine how I wanted to create this composition. What zoom / lens will I use? Where do I want to place the sun's disc? Do I want to use a narrow aperture (more in focus) or a wide aperture (blurring the foreground and background)? I pondered differing answers to these questions for a while, until the perfect opportunity arose on June 22nd. The NW horizon was clear but some lingering cumulus clouds stuck around until sundown. The clouds would give extra depth to the background and ultimately give the sense that the tree is connecting Earth and Sky. One question I never really settled in my head was where I wanted to place the sun. I soon realized I would place the sun directly behind the tree, as it created a dazzling effect, splitting the sun into several mini-suns filtering through the foliage. Insects taking flight over the field can be seen as little orbs of light over the tree. The tree's shadow draped across the field fills the foreground with darkness, adding exceptional contrast to the image.

Check out a higher quality version for viewing on my 500px page: https://500px.com/photo/1124648629/sparkle-of-life-by-david-piano

06/22/2026

An impromptu local chase Saturday afternoon in northern Oxford County yielded some incredibly dynamic and beautiful scenes. I initially got into position NW of Thamesford for a severe storm moving out of north London (this storm produced copious amounts of quarter sized hail in the city). That storm gave me some nice structure but weakened on final approach to my location. I noticed the outflow was triggering a fresh storm to my north. Under the rapidly growing updraft, a small funnel cloud churned for about 3min before breaking up. Soon, a rain/hail shaft developed with this new cell near Kintore and I punched through the core near Lakeside and got some pea sized hail and moderate wind gusts. I continued east to near Brooksdale where a hole punched in the clouds on the storm's north flank caused a stunning sunbeam to shine down thru the rain/hail. The sunbeam then tracked right over me and resulted in a stunning double rainbow and high-contrast lighting making the storm's base look pitch black. These special scenes are the reasons why I'll chase even the marginal days....you never know how the atmosphere may leave you breathless!

Northern Tornadoes Project

06/18/2026

Managed to capture a cloud-to-air lightning bolt in the core of a thunderstorm cell to the south of Lorimer Lake in the Parry Sound area on Tuesday. I used an MK Controls Lightning Bug trigger to capture this image which senses the infrared light from a lightning event just milliseconds before the visible light, tripping the camera's shutter in time to capture the visible bolt.

06/14/2026

Amateur astronomy has always been of interest to me, but that interest has grown substantially since I recently decided to build my own astro photo rig and have been learning the ropes whenever I get clear nights. I have now gathered enough data on some targets to produce my first deep-sky images with this setup (4 globular star clusters, 1 galaxy). I have also added a photo I took of Jupiter and the Moon. The Jupiter image consists of 2 exposures merged, one set for the brightness of Jupiter and the other set for its Galilean moons. Each of these 2 exposures were first generated by stacking the best frames from videos of a few minutes in length. The globular cluster images contain anywhere from 40-60 100sec subs. The Pinwheel Galaxy image is comprised of 91 200sec subs. I have now started to gather data on the Whirlpool Galaxy and the Splinter Galaxy which will be my next two photo projects over the next week or so. Fingers crossed for some clear nights!

My Astrophotography Rig
Askar 120APO Telescope
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Mount
Askar 52mm Super ED Guidescope
Askar Field Flattener and 0.8x Reducer
ZWO ASI120MM Mini Mono Cam for Guiding
ZWO ASI294MC Main Imaging Camera
ZWO UV/IR Cut Filter
ASIAir Plus Astro Computer
ZWO EAF with Temp Probe

So far, this rig has proved to be a wonderful setup and has allowed me to learn the ropes of deep-sky imaging and post-processing. I am super impressed with the 120APO’s optics, yielding pinpoint stars corner-corner every time. I look forward to using my rig to discover more of the wonders in our night sky beyond the limits of human-eye perception!

Address

Ingersoll, ON

Website

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpiano/, https://500px.com/p/dpianophotography95, https://dpianophotography.art/

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