Skies & Weather

For a couple of hours we watched the lightning and listened to the thunder roam around the area. Our exchange student, from China, had never experienced such a display of storm activity. Once dark arrived, the lightning became quite impressive. We had company over for game night and I decided that I couldn't stand it any longer and I just grabbed my camera and headed out into the storm, taking my student with me. As soon as we left the garage, the first rain we had hit...and it hit hard. As I was slowly driving from Albany to East Greenbush, the hail pinged hard on the car. My student laughing and video recording with her phone during the entire ride. I was worried she may be a bit nervous, but she seemed excited to be experiencing the storm drama. Once we got to the exit 9 in E. Greenbush, the rain had subsided. Pulling into the overlook to view the skyline, we parked right up against the railing and got out to enjoy the spectacular show of lightning. For the first 5-10 minutes we just watched. I had my camera set up on the tripod but lightning was all around us and I never knew which way to point my camera and shoot. I wanted a great capture of the skyline and said a quick prayer for something great. I only took about 12 shots, each at 30 seconds one after the other. In-between exposures I seemed to be missing some good stuff! Finally, I knew I had a great capture and only took 2-3 more before the rain started to arrive. The entire ride back to Albany was just as heavy as it was getting to my destination.

Once I got home, I immediately loaded up my images into the computer to examine my photos. One photo stood out among the rest, even though I did get a couple of shots with multiple lightning bolts. The size of this lightning bolt in comparison to the skyline buildings shows the power and violent threat that exists in lightning storms. Each bolt is unique and swift, so it's worth taking a chance to get out there and appreciate what nature expresses.

The only photoshop techniques applied were a color tone adjustment to reduce the yellow color cast, detail sharpening, and cropping.

Taken with a Nikon D800, 24-70mm f2.8 (set at f11), ISO 100, 30" second exposure.

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