Vanishing into Rain
When I’m out chasing storms in the late evening, one of the big goals is to get lightning shots. Sometimes I’m so focused on it, I miss the obvious sunset going on in front of me. This photo was the result of me driving down a road north of Casa Grande as far as I could until it dead ended at this spot. The rain falling in the middle of the picture had a lightning strike not long before this. So I set up, aimed for it and start ripping off 5-10 second exposures.
Well, no more lightning came…but when I stopped for a second and looked at the scene, I was blown away by the beauty of this stormy sunset. I panned back a bit, pulled in more powerlines and took this photo.
I get caught up a lot in HDR processing because of the drama it can create from simple scenes, or even the enhancing it can do with already existing drama. Yet sometimes a scene tells you that once you snapped the shutter, you were done. Sure, maybe a little noise reduction because of the higher ISO, a slight twinge of color adjustments…but the scene speaks for itself. It didn’t need me to add more to the story.
I love this photo. Powerlines are usually ugly, but as a silhouette of vertical lines disappearing into a monsoon downpour at sunset…it’s just beautiful to me. This is why I love being out there, capturing storms…you get moments like these that you don’t plan for and may never be able to find again.
Very nice shot Mike. Even without HDR you can get good results.