Shawn Marques
08-22-2008, 12:29 PM
What you are looking at is lightning bolt nearly striking my wife, Amy (and myself). The main bolt was estimated at striking the ground about 60 feet away from us, with a smaller finger bolt coming between us. I was about 12 feet behind Amy taking the image.
There was a nice, distant heat lightning show going on that evening and so we decided to take a ride to a desolate area where there was a minimum of artificial lighting, to experiment with capturing the light show with long exposures. It was pitch dark outside and a flashlight was used to focus the camera on Amy. This 30 second exposure image was actually the last we planned on taking for the night when suddenly an excruciatingly loud and blinding bolt of lightning struck nearby. I grabbed the camera and we high-tailed it to the car.
I did not expect this image to come out because I moved the camera without thinking of whether or not the 30 second exposure was completed. But to our surprise, the image came out very well, despite the over-exposed areas caused by the lightning. The bolt must have hit just at the end of the 30 seconds. Without this image as evidence, we would have never known how close it came to hitting us and how extremely lucky we are to be here today. BTW, we did not feel a thing! Nor did we hear any other bolts occur before this one came along. ;)
Does anyone find this image marketable and any suggestions on who to contact?
Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM on Canon 40D
ISO 500, 30s @ f/5.6
Manfrotto tripod with Monfrotto head
Taken late evening in Port St. Lucie, FL
There was a nice, distant heat lightning show going on that evening and so we decided to take a ride to a desolate area where there was a minimum of artificial lighting, to experiment with capturing the light show with long exposures. It was pitch dark outside and a flashlight was used to focus the camera on Amy. This 30 second exposure image was actually the last we planned on taking for the night when suddenly an excruciatingly loud and blinding bolt of lightning struck nearby. I grabbed the camera and we high-tailed it to the car.
I did not expect this image to come out because I moved the camera without thinking of whether or not the 30 second exposure was completed. But to our surprise, the image came out very well, despite the over-exposed areas caused by the lightning. The bolt must have hit just at the end of the 30 seconds. Without this image as evidence, we would have never known how close it came to hitting us and how extremely lucky we are to be here today. BTW, we did not feel a thing! Nor did we hear any other bolts occur before this one came along. ;)
Does anyone find this image marketable and any suggestions on who to contact?
Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM on Canon 40D
ISO 500, 30s @ f/5.6
Manfrotto tripod with Monfrotto head
Taken late evening in Port St. Lucie, FL