Midland photographer finds success chasing sunsets and storms

On her growing Instagram account where she posts stunning photographs of sunsets and storms across Texas and beyond, Midland resident Janis Grella describes herself as a “TX based amateur photographer equipped with a Sony A7rV and a love of the sky.”

The description may be accurate, but the term “amateur” appears understated given the level of the works Grella shares on social media. Her photographs of sunsets and lightning strikes stun in color and imagery. Nearly 8,000 people follow her Instagram account to see what Grella might post next.

“I’ve only made a couple hundred bucks from [photography], so technically I am an amateur,” she insists.

Whether or not the photographs help her to earn a living, they are certainly being noticed. Throughout August and September, in fact, the Sibley Nature Center in Midland prominently featured a set of her works, describing them as evoking “a sense of awe and introspection.” The Center also invited Grella to lead hikes with local children to teach what it’s like to be a storm photographer.

For Grella, a busy Midland mother of young children, the new attention is more surreal than even her photographs.

“This all started with my phone, really,” she says.

Cellphone sunsets

Grella had long been snapping photos of Texas sunsets on her smartphone. She posted them to her personal social media pages. From her porch, for example, she’d capture vivid shots of a lightning storm. As the images she posted began garnering attention, she launched an Instagram page, which quickly grew in popularity and motivated her to keep going.

Grella eventually leveled up by picking up her husband’s old camera. “He majored in it years ago,” she explained. At first, she’d take photos using both the camera and her smartphone. Photos from the smartphone drew better colors until she learned how to edit the raw photos off her camera.

“First couple times I picked up a camera, I mean, I didn’t know anything. I put it on automatic, and just went for it,” she said.

Grella eventually took a class at a local college, learning the ins and outs of her camera from a portrait photographer. Now, she struggles to put the camera down.

“I think I probably take more photos than anybody else I know,” Grella said. “I mean, I’ll take a couple thousand photos in one session.”

Storm chaser

Grella doesn’t always need to chase storms. In Texas, storms come to her.

“We would drive across Texas and see these insane storms off in the distance,” she said. “I never really understood the science, and I’m still learning how to forecast and all that, but it was always beautiful.”

As her Instagram gained steam early on, a big storm came through the region and Grella went out looking for a photo. At the time, she wasn’t thinking that what she was doing could be considered storm photography. She was only an “amateur,” after all. So she went out looking for a shot, at that point only with her phone. A guy pulled up in a truck who Grella thought was the landowner of a nearby field. But it was another photographer who pulled a tripod out of his truck, then went back to get another.

“I’m not the only person crazy enough to do something like this,” Grella thought.

Eventually, she connected with a professional photographer who invited her to join a storm chasing tour.

“I’ve gone with them now for three years in a row,” she said. “They’re such a great group.”

With help from an ultra-supportive husband, Grella is able to step away from the storm of her daily responsibilities as a mother to chase her artistic endeavors. Grella’s own mother was an art teacher.

“The artsy, crafty part of me has always been my mother’s influence,” she said. “She loved sewing, jewelry making and painting on silk.”

Grella’s art may in part be influenced by her mother’s love of watching the weather channel.

Grella finds it interesting how her mother loved watching the weather channel.

“Which I never really put together until recently,” Grella said. “But I was like, well, maybe that has something to do with it.”

In her education, Grella majored in Psychology and minored in Business and Sociology, so not exactly the artsy route. She worked in accounting prior to having children. As a young woman, Grella suffered from alcoholism to the point that she ended up in the hospital for a week with a nonfunctioning liver. She quit drinking and remains alcohol free after over a decade. One year after stopping the addiction, she became pregnant with her first child. It all happened fast, like a storm. It was a blessing.

“I never would have had kids if I kept drinking that way,” Grella said.

In her swift transition from a dying alcoholic to a busy mom, Grella wonders if she neglected to stop for a moment to truly discover herself. Today, photography provides that space for her.

“It’s nice to do something that is just me, I guess,” she says.

Grella wouldn’t describe herself as an outdoorsy person, “but if you put a camera in my hand I’ll wake up at two in the morning to hike up the mountain and take a shot of the Milky Way.”

Back in May, she joined a nine-hour drive to South Dakota to capture photographs of the Northern Lights, which, as of this writing, she hadn’t yet posted online.

“I love going and doing something new, or seeing something that you know not everybody else has seen, and being able to capture it,” she said.

Whether it is the thrill of lightning strikes, and perhaps more so, the thrill of snapping the perfect photograph, Grella has no plans to stop chasing the storm, anytime soon. She hopes to teach others how to do it, as well.

At the same time, Grella pays respect to the reality of storms and their potential destruction.

“I think it’s a fine line between the beauty and the destruction it can cause,” she said, adding, “It’s absolutely amazing to me when I can witness something in the sky that’s bigger than me.”