The Midwest & West this time of year literally light up with the heat. Monsoons from the south bring up moisture and when it mixes with the heat, afternoon thunderheads form and with them, lightning! While some folks and critters are not big fans of Mother Nature’s fireworks, I can’t get enough of them! Yes, there is some danger in this pursuit to ourselves and our gear. That is something you must keep in mind. The National Weather Service has a great page of info to brief and keep you safe. I’ll be honest, my success in coming back with images I want to post like the one above is not very common. The main reason, just because you show up doesn’t mean the light will strike where you want it. This is what I do to improve my odds.

It begins with looking at weather apps to see where they predict afternoon thunderstorms. Just because they make the prediction is NO guarantee you’ll come back with the photo. Next, I look at the location to see if there is a foreground to go with the light. This requires a bit of map work and web searches. With this done if, if there is a better than 50/50 chance of light and there is a landscape to put it with, I’ll make the run.

These days, the photography is really darn easy, day or night! In all seriousness, just get a Miops and that’s that. If there is one mistake most folks make in this pursuit is going to wide. If you have amazing skies were a spark makes a good ascent, then go wide. Otherwise, go long, like 85mm or more. If you have a vehicle that has a hatch that opens, that helps to stay dry otherwise, expect to get wet in this process. Watch the wx map for hail as it not only can hurt, it can damage gear, vehicle and you! Otherwise, it’s the season to get out with a little heat, a little moisture and boom!

The luck is the monsoons perform as desired. At sunset they release their energy producing the lightning that can be absolutely magical! The technology in the form of a Miops for the lightning and a WB of 10k to bring out those reds. And the romance, that can start with a John Ford movie and a room at The View. Yeah, there are other options in August but most folks don’t think of heading to the desert during the heat of the summer. But that heat is what produces the monsoon storms and that creates the magic. Monument Valley, my idea of where to go in August!

Then there were the photographs, they too were an experience I will never forget. Oh, there are so many issues bringing that experience back in a photograph! There is so much light pollution the steam picks up. First, there is the dinning hall to the south with its sodium vapor lights. They were still in the process of getting it open for the season and it seemed to me they were having fun playing with the lights. It was an atomic glow! Then there were the delivery trucks headlights that came and went. At first I though it might be a cool form of light painting. I thought wrong. Lastly were the headlights of folks pulling into the Old Faithful Inn. The irruption went off around 11:30PM and you’d think these things wouldn’t be an issue. Despite all of this, I got a couple of clicks and while the experience comes rushing back to my memory, I’m not bringing you there. This was my first opportunity to make these clicks, it won’t be the last. Old Faithful under the stars, what an experience!

exposure note: ISO 6400 f2.8 1.5sec

We are so fortunate to travel the world with our cameras! We have a responsibility to not only bring back the photograph we want, but one we want to share. And we need to do more than share but invite our viewer to come in and take a seat! These two very red chairs are on the lawn and the Cape Spear Lighthouse. As far out into the Atlantic as you can get and not get wet, Cape Spear is often blanketed in fog as it was this day. There was gray everywhere! Except these two chairs and the top of the copola. I wanted to put you into that scene and to do that, I grabbed the fisheye, got as close physically I could and not crop the chairs and went click. I wanted to match the curved lighthouse with the chairs, tie them in with shape and color. I want you to say to yourself, “what a fun place to sit and watch life.” The invite to the viewer goes with the way you arrange the elements in the frame. Please, have a seat!