Great story and wonderful image!
You are here
"In a Flash:" Life can sure change in a flash. After going from anticipating a wonderful moment about to happen for months in advance, to experiencing utter disappointment when that moment came this week that almost made me want to give up, I escaped to the Grand Canyon late in the day to shoot some monsoon storms there. My car almost died on me several times and suddenly would not accelerate at all the wrong moments, such as in the middle of a turn at a busy intersection where surrounding cars were not slowing down for me, but eventually I got there. By the time I arrived, it was pouring down rain-- so hard that I had to pull off the road and wait it out for a bit as I could not see a thing. Finally, it slowed a bit, and I got my camera set up, and was about to put my lightning sensor on (since it was still daylight and it is much, much harder to capture lightning without it during the day), when suddenly I realized, my cable to connect it to the camera was missing! That had never happened to me before. I was trying to mentally retrace my steps with it, and due to the other negative event preoccupying me during the early part of the week, I hadn't shot in a few days (which is unusual for me). By that point, it almost seemed like the icing on the cake of a string of disasters and I just didn't even have any further emotional reserve to react to this finding, where normally I might have become very angry with myself over having misplaced a vital piece of equipment and panicked at what could have happened to it. When you feel you have no further negative reaction to muster, I realized It was a moment of feeling utter defeat. But time wasn't waiting for me and so instead, I stood there against the raging winds and shot lightning the old-fashioned way-- with gut instinct on the timing, camera settings optimized for capture, and many missed bolts as well. FINALLY, I captured . . . just one. Then the rains became too steady and strongly blowing to allow me to protect my lens from the drops, so I had to stop. I waited till sunset, but it was still very dreary and actively raining. It was a long drive back and forth in a matter of just several hours, but I was grateful to have captured at least one bolt. Hopefully you can appreciate it as well. Nikon D810, 14-24 lens, Manfrotto tripod. No lightning trigger this time! ISO 64, f/18, 0.6 seconds.