'I honestly didn't believe that I was going to get out of it alive'

Greg Johnson has been chasing tornadoes for a decade and making a career of it for the past six years. He's an extreme weather photographer who hunts down any twister, thunderstorm or freak weather incident worth taking a picture of.

It started when he moved from Ontario to Saskatchewan in the mid-1990s and experienced his first real prairie thunderstorm.

"I guess I kind of got hooked. Maybe it was like a 'coming to Jesus' moment or something. I got that itch and as a photographer I just became fascinated with getting images of thunderstorms and getting images that really most people won't be able to get."

Over the years, this obsession has taken him all over North America, including the centre of the largest recorded tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma in 2013. Three storm chasers died, but Greg lived to tell the tale.

"There was this death-defying aspect to it where I literally had that moment — where, you know, it's cliche to say it but I had that moment where I saw my life flash before my eyes. When the barn next to us started to explode and we started losing all the glass in our truck, I can tell you that I honestly didn't believe that I was going to get out of it alive."

With four kids at home in Regina, Greg's adventures in pursuit of the perfect storm see him weighing the risks of his job with the payoff.

Greg knows his passion is dangerous though he says he takes all of the precautions he can to stay safe.

But it is still scary.  

"Listen, if there's anyone who tells you they wouldn't be scared doing that, they're bs-ing you. I've watched a town fly up in the air. I've watched farmyards be destroyed and you don't know — are you watching somebody losing their life? You're watching for sure somebody's life being changed."