Thunder in the prairie
My weekend was too short! But overall, it was a success. I got in to the Crowsnest Pass from Canmore at 12:30am, slept, got up, drove back to Lethbridge, went straight in to work, did my shift, went straight out to a photoshoot, and then went storm chasing. I could see lightning in the distance as I drove home, and followed it out to the west side. The atmosphere was calm as I bounced down a back road, breathing in the scent of fresh cut hay and feeling the humidity rise by the second. I stopped when the road petered out into a dirt track. I was standing in the back of my truck with my camera on the roof when a one ton pickup truck drove towards me. "You're on private land," the hefty man with a head of thick gray hair called out the window. I apologized and backed up the 20 feet on to the gravel road again. Moments later, big drops of rain began to fall. Though my camera body is splashproof, the lenses I have are not, so I retreated to the cab. Good thing I did, because a few minutes later, the lightning that had been in the distance surrounded the vehicle, some striking less than a kilometer away. The flash was blinding as it hit a building in the distance and stayed blue for a second before dissipating.
I haven't installed Photoshop on my new commuter yet, so I played with the very neat online editor Picnik to tweak this photo (just to straighten it and darken it a little). The streak of light at the bottom is from cars moving along the highway. 30 second exposure, probably about f5, and ISO 100. I've missed doing lightning shots!
I haven't installed Photoshop on my new commuter yet, so I played with the very neat online editor Picnik to tweak this photo (just to straighten it and darken it a little). The streak of light at the bottom is from cars moving along the highway. 30 second exposure, probably about f5, and ISO 100. I've missed doing lightning shots!