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| © Olivier Staiger |
| Lightning, Sept. 10, 2006, Swiss Alps. Click photo for more images. |
Most photographers seek the light. Olivier Staiger is drawn to the days when the sky turns to night, or when a towering storm darkens the world.
Staiger's romance with solar eclipses -- he's seen 23 -- goes back to 1994. That's when he traveled to Texas on a lark to see a mere "annular" eclipse, where the moon turns the sun into a bright ring but doesn't totally blot it out. "It was interesting, but not impressive," recalls the 48-year-old resident of Geneva, Switzerland.
When another observer mentioned that in a few months there'd be a total eclipse visible from the Iguazu Falls in Brazil, Staiger headed south. It changed his life.
"A total eclipse is 10,000 times more impressive than a partial or annular eclipse. You see the sky getting dark in the middle of the day. You see the stars. It gets cold," he says excitedly. Maybe best of all is "seeing the corona, which is the atmosphere of the sun. Normally, you can never see it -- only during those few seconds or minutes of totality."
Since then, Staiger, who also goes by the nickname of "Klipsi," has traveled the world chasing eclipses. Antarctica, Baffin Island, Easter Island, Mongolia.
Recently, his quest for eclipses has been joined by an obsession for photographing tornados and other violent weather. "Storm chasing is more of a challenge, and it's more adrenaline," he says.
So as he sits eating papaya salad at a Thai restaurant in Geneva, he's dreaming of... Kansas. And Oklahoma. And the other states of the Great Plains. "In May, I want to be in Oklahoma chasing tornados for two months," says Staiger, who shoots with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT and a variety of Canon and Sigma primes. A favorite? His 400mm f/5.6 Sigma APO macro, which he uses handheld. "I don't like tripods under a thunderstorm. They feel like lightning rods to me," he says.
"I call myself a sky paparazzo. I like flashy things, things that are observable to the naked eye: total eclipses, lunar eclipses, bright comets, shooting stars, meteors, lightning, thunderstorms."
Paying for it all isn't easy. When he isn't traveling, Staiger works as a limo driver, taking clients around Geneva. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment; he isn't married and doesn't have a family.
In addition to his two-month American trip, his plans for 2008 include a $20,000 excursion on a Russian nuclear icebreaker to catch an eclipse. So tomorrow, he'll be behind the wheel of a Mercedes S350L. Still, it could be a good day: Thunderstorms are forecast. "Some could be severe," he says. "I look forward to it."
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