~Strike Above Red Mountain~

~Or Death By Misadventure~

I do enjoy photographing these things! A strike is synonymous with power and light, destruction and creation, strength and forcefulness. And if your close enough the sound can be deafening and quite startling, you can feel it to the depths of your core. How exciting to be out shooting in a lightning storm. You have a feeling of bravery and courage, yet you know in an instant nothingness and death could be the outcome of your daring and mettle.

While out shooting lightning I keep thinking of a song.
Ted Nugent's "Death By Misadventure!"
I wonder why that song keeps going through my mind?

Hear him on the radio. See him on the news.
See him on the TV. Y'a hear him sing the blues,
Welcome to his nightmare He's been through the mill.
Death by misadventure. A case of overkill.
He stayed awake 'til daylight, didn't believe in health.
He never saw the sunrise, didn't believe in wealth.
Wrote dramatic music, was a rollin' stone.
No one understood him, they just left him alone.
Death by misadventure. Death by misadventure.
Death by misadventure, A case of overkill.

On a technical side, a strike is quite difficult to capture. Among the things one has to deal with are focus, your shooting at night, manual focus with pre-focusing helps. Time and timing, I use bulb exposure with a cable release. On some of these shots the shutter can be open for a minute or more. Long exposures are notorious for causing pixelation and grain. So don't do long exposures, and of course the second you close the shutter you get a wonderful strike, that you just missed. You can't believe how often that happens, it happens a lot, and you can hear me yell "darn it", each time I miss a bolt. Some things that are needed are tripod, cable release, patience and a lot of good luck. Oh, I almost forgot, having a Guardian Angel along on your shoot can't hurt either.

Thanks looking and reading, TucsonJim ;o)

Bigger Bolt